Immortal Phoenix
by Empyreal Phoenix
Summary: The Phoenix is tired of his world, Makai, and wishes to leave it. He does so, and ends up in the Land of Fire. See how this affects Naruto's world. Rated T for violence and just in case.
1. Prologue: Rising from the Flames

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this story.<p>

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><p>Prologue: Rising from the Flames<p>

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><p>I was tired of this place. This world. It was time to go somewhere else. A different world perhaps? The nine great tailed beasts had left. Perhaps I should do the same? I had grown up here in this world, but it was time to stretch my wings and test my freedom. I could not stay here any longer. The tailed beasts had left to a different world. I decided to follow. I was not a caged little bird, and I would test the limits of my freedom.<p>

I knew that in order to leave this world… I had to learn how. And in order to learn how, I had to either learn it from _someone_ or _something_. And I would much rather learn it from a _something. _Somebody could tell me if I was making the path to a different world correctly… but asking someone…was not something I wanted to do. Very few knew how to leave this world anyway, preferring to stay, and asking someone…well, that had the potential to blow up…and kill me. I would much rather stay alive. Being alive is good. I am not, contrary to what others believe, immortal, I am close…but still not quite. And that "not quite" was what makes the difference in my survival or my death.

Yes, here, in this world, while it wasn't exactly a free-for-all fight for survival… it seemed pretty close. What can I say… this world is dangerous. Survival is everything. The almost constant danger was another reason I wanted to leave. I knew how to fight, you had to learn and I could hold my own in a fight…but fights are dangerous. If you want to survive…don't get in a fight in the first place. You only go and pick fights if you were incredibly strong, arrogant, or suicidal. I am fairly sure I am not those…though I believe I am not weak either, I am not incredibly strong. _Lesson number one of survival: Avoid dangerous situations that could potentially blow up on you and result in either injury or death._

I could ask my family…but that would be embarrassing. Asking my family for something like that? No thank you. Spare me the embarrassment. I could not, and would not ask them, unless I was dying. Not that they were a bad family or anything… but if I asked them…I would _never _hear the end of it. We live long lives, and I would prefer to avoid being teased for _eternity_. On top of that, I would _still_ not learn anything because they would probably write it up as a joke or a passing fancy.

And so I began to search for something, anything, that could help me get out of my home world and into another. I searched, and searched. Nothing. I could not find anything. I searched and searched… but there was nothing. The only thing that could teach me how to open the path was a scroll or book or directions written down somewhere and I could not find any of that kind of thing. In the end, I had searched many, many libraries before I finally broke into my family's secret one. I was not supposed to go into that library, I was not even supposed to know about it. Normally, this would count as a dangerous situation (that could potentially blow up on me and result in injury…though I don't _think_ death) and I would avoid it… but I _had_ to find something to help me get out of this world.

The library was _vast, _as in it was the biggest room I had ever seen, with rows upon rows of bookshelves (scrollshelves?)_._There must have been over two or three thousand of those shelves. I didn't even know it was possible to have that much , my family is a _very_ old one, so it shouldn't be that surprising ,I guess. I think the size was why it was so hard to keep a secret…that and the hundreds of rumors about this place. A secret indeed. _Very_ well kept. Now I just had to look in all of the book shelves for a scroll that may or may not exist. Great. I _had_ to look though…this was the last possible place that I could think of for it to be. If I could not find it, I would have to ask someone to help me, a path I sorely wished to avoid.

I searched…and searched the shelves. Honestly, I think it took longer than all my previous searches for that stupid scroll _combined_. Seriously, who organized this place? I would call it…disorganizingly organized. Does that make sense? It was organized, quite badly, in my opinion, but the vast size of this place made it disorganized. But, no matter, I would search every shelf if I had to, in order to find something, anything that would help me to find a way to a different world.

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><p><em>3,051 bookshelves later…<em>

Luckily, very few actually went to the library, otherwise I would have had to hide every time someone went in. That would have been annoying.

After a long while, I found it. It was in there, in the 3,051 bookshelf. A scroll. A scroll on how to open a Portal, as the path was called, was in that shelf in the library. Of course it would be in the _very last shelf_. Oh why didn't I start backwards? Would have saved me _forever_. At least I found it…(I did say I would search every shelf if I had to). And at least my kind lived a long time. Otherwise, I think I would have died from old age…that or suffocating from the amount of dust in the library.

Since I didn't dare to take it out, I copied it instead. Once I was finished, I left the secret library. I was thrilled… I would soon get my chance to leave. I have searched for a _long_ time, but at least it was worth it. The only problem was that what the scroll detailed was incredibly_…complex_. Learning how to open the Portal would be…difficult. Why could something not be complicated for once? Now I would have to dedicate years of solving the complex directions and then actually opening the Portal. I had already dedicated years on just _finding_ that stupid thing…now I had to _learn _from it.

So I started.

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><p><em>12 years later…<em>

I had succeeded! I had successfully opened the Portal. It took me a while to learn how to leave my world using a Portal, but when I was finished learning, I decided that I would take my chance. I would soon be in a different world, supposingly where the great tailed beast were also said to be. I wondered if I would find any of them. I would much rather not, in terms of strength…let's just say that I don't quite measure up to them, not even the one-tailed one. Not that I would say that to their face. While I was much younger (much, much younger) than them, and they had thousands, if not a millennia of experience, I still had my pride.

When I had opened the Portal to the world where I wanted to go, I had my doubts. The Portal looked far, far from stable. It was shaking… and it was a strange purple color…was it supposed to be purple? I didn't know. And it was swirling inside, seemingly leading to an abyss. Is it even supposed to be doing that? What if it's not? What if it collapsed while I wasn't done crossing? What if I had done it wrong? That last thought irked me a little. I could not have done it wrong; I would not have done it wrong. I spent years learning how to open that stupid, stupid Portal, and it had better not be wrong!

I thought of my family right before I plunged through, but I had already told them my goal…(they had thought I was joking…and didn't believe I could succeed in opening the portal, ha, I would show them) so I had no more business to talk to them about. I was old enough to leave them, and leave them I would. I had already said my goodbyes to them, and with that, I had plunged through the Portal, to the freedom that could not be found in Makai.

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><p>Author's note: Okay. I am done with the Prologue! In case you couldn't tell, the main character is a phoenix. Naruto characters won't show up until chapter 3 or so.<p> 


	2. Chapter 1: Out of the Portal

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (that's a given) nor am I making any profit from this (it's on <em>fanfiction<em>).

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><p>Chapter 1: Into the Portal, Out of the Fire<p>

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><p>I was going through the Portal. The Portal was similar to a tunnel in a way. It was a straight path, without any other paths branching off the main way. For this, I was relieved. If I had to pick the ways to go while in the Portal, I would probably get lost and never find my way to my proper destination. At least, I hoped I was going to my proper destination…well, as long as it was not leading me to back Makai, I would be happy.<p>

Strange purplish lights floated around me. I hoped that was normal. The scroll did not detail what happened in the Portal. I could only hope I was doing it right. If not, well…it was already a dangerous situation, and I knew what I was getting to. If I was doing something wrong…I would not be able to do anything about it. I resolved not to think of the scenario of me messing up in some way. _Don't think about it. Don't think about it._ So I put my mind to other matters. What was I to do when I was out of the Portal and into a different world? I had already resolved to explore that new world, but what if I ran into a dangerous situation? If that happened, I would just have to deal with it, I guessed. I could take care of myself, so I was confident that I could defend myself against any unexpected foes, if it was necessary.

I had done a little research on the world that I was going to. Unfortunately, there wasn't really much information on that world, but what little information there was I knew. Humans were the most advanced creatures that inhabited that world, and it was not exactly a peaceful world. I had a scroll that had a drawing of a human, so at least I knew what they looked like. I knew that much. There were nations controlled by various humans. I knew that too. I also knew words for the things in that world that we did not have in Makai, but other than that, I did not know much else. On top of that, my information sources were old…and that world could have changed. So all my information could possibly be useless.

That was fine. I wanted to learn about that world anyway, not hear about it or read about it, but see it for myself. Now that I thought about it…I did not even know that world's _name. _Or at least the humans' name for it. I would have to find that out. I resolved to do so.

While I had been thinking, I had also been flying through the Portal. I could now see the end of it. I could see the bright light at the end of the tunnel-like Portal. I steeled myself. _No turning back now, _I thought to myself. And I flew through to the world beyond.

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><p>I was here. Out of the Portal. And into a new world. The Portal closed behind me. I barely noticed in my excitement. I let out an ear-splitting shriek, also in my excitement, before I thought to check myself for any injuries. I could have lost something in the Portal. I stretched out my wings. Two fiery-looking feathered wings extended from my body. They were fine, I noted, giving two powerful flaps. Then I checked my feet. Two red-colored talon feet were supporting my similarly red and but also gold colored body, so that was fine. My eyesight was fine, and so was my beak. I twisted my head around in the way that only birds could manage and noted that my tail was fine. It would not have done to be a tailless phoenix. That would be quite…humiliating. I had not lost any important parts of myself because of crossing the Portal.<p>

I looked at the world. I was in a place full of tall brown and green…_things. _What were they suppose to be? I wracked my brain for the name of those…things. Then I remembered. _Trees. _So if I am in a place with a lot of those things…trees, this place must be a forest I deduced. It was a very beautiful place. Better the seemingly endless but colorful monotony of green and brown trees than the boring monotony of Makai, I thought. Besides, I was sure that there were more than just forests in this world.

After comparing myself to one of the trees, I could see I was about the same height. I was not a particularly large bird, I was actually quite…small for my kind. That was due to my young age. I hoped that when I was older, I would grow. I always felt…too small…when compared to others in my family. At least in this world, I was as big as the tallest thing that I could see.

In the forest, I could hear the scuttling of the many creatures that inhabit this world. They were all running away from me. That made sense, I was a large creature, at least in their world, and I had made quite a disturbance with the shriek that I could not have helped but let out when I made it here. That shriek probably had also drawn the attention of the people who lived here, humans, I am sure they were called.

I decided to explore the forest around me before flying off to see the rest of the place. First things first, and since I was already in the forest, why not? It was a dense forest and I was too large to maneuver correctly. I would have to shrink myself. I hated to shrink myself because in Makai, I was already the smallest, so why bother? But I did have the ability to do so. When you are a bird of my race, shrinking yourself is useful because not all places have the ability, or rather, the capacity, to fit you.

I shrunk myself. Comparing myself to the trees again, I was now only an eighth of their size. Since the trees were around 40 feet (around12 meters), I was now only 5 feet, (close to 1.5 meters) tall. I felt really small. I felt tiny. I was definitely not suppose to be this small. I have not been this small since…a really long time. As in since I was an egg. At least now I could maneuver myself around the trees.

I started to do so. I went, walking around the trees, exploring. I noticed that not all the…._vegetation_ were trees, there were some really short ones too. They did not have any brown color on them, but were only colored green. I continued to search around. I noticed the birds here are really small. I already felt small, but I was _huge_ compared to them. The creatures, the ones that I saw at least, here were all small really. In comparison to Makai, all the creatures here, compared to their look-a-likes in Makai, were only a fraction of the size.

I had also yet to meet any humans. I guessed that they did not live in forests though, so that might be the answer. I really wanted to meet one, at least. According to my information, they were sentient, and could think for themselves and talk. I wanted to talk to one. But now that I thought about it…did we even speak the same language? I did not know. Probably…or probably not. There were a lot of languages spoken in Makai, taken from or based on different worlds and their people here and there. Maybe one of the languages used in Makai came from here? I hoped so. I would not be able to speak to these humans otherwise. Or at least, I would have to learn their language. Now how would I do that? I would though, if I needed to. I had all the time in the world.

As I continued my little trek through the green, green, and more green of the forest, I decided to get off the ground and see what was on the trees. Once I decided that, I flew up and alighted on one of the branches of a nearby tree. From there, I had a better view of the place. There were really a lot of trees here. It looked endless from up here on my perch, more so then it had looked like from the ground.

From here, I could also hear the sounds of metal striking metal. Did those sounds belong naturally in the forest? I did not know, so I set to find out. I headed in the direction of the noisy disturbance, gliding from branch to branch, closer and closer. Soon, I could see what was happening. And I saw my first humans.

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><p>Author's Note: Chapter 1 is finished! Nest chapter is where the Phoenix will meet the characters of Naruto.<p> 


	3. Chapter 2: Such Strange Creatures

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my character used in this story.<p>

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><p>Chapter 2: Such Strange Creatures<p>

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><p>I saw the source of the disturbance. And the humans. Were they humans? They looked a lot like the drawings on the scroll that I had read. It was a little hard to tell. They would not stay still for me to confirm. I could not, having never seen any before, differentiate between a male and a female human, so for now, I would assume that both the humans were male. Humans were foreign to me. I had never interacted with any of their kind. They had two legs that were used to support themselves on and yet also had two more limbs. Arms I think. Attached to those were hands…if I remembered correctly. One of the humans (at least I am sure it was a human) was holding in his hands a strange black triangular object that had a point. A weapon of some kind? And he seemed to be attacking the other human.<p>

On the attacking human's body was …_clothing_ I think it was called. I knew about that. He wore simple black pants and a shirt that had a vest over it. On his thigh he had several bags and pouches. I wondered what they contained. As for what I thought of the clothing, well, clothing…was a strange concept to me. I had never needed it. I instead wore my bright scarlet and gold feathers…and that I did not _need_ to take on and off. I couldn't either. I did need to replace old feathers though.

The other human looked different. That human did not have a face; it seemed to be covered by something that was white and looked like porcelain. A mask, I think it was. It looked like a creature of some sort. Why did he wear a mask? He also had on arm guards and chest armor in addition to dark pants. There was a long almost rectangular object on his back. I had no clue what that could be.

These two humans were the ones that caused that strange metal against metal sound that I was curious about. The sound was not natural after all.

The masked human was also attacking the other unmasked human. I wondered why they were attacking each other. Humans, it appeared, did _not_ get along well with each other.

I was not that close to those humans. I was quite a distance away, far enough to not be seen by human eyes…at least according to what little I know of humans. I could see them though, being perched at a good location, where not too many branches obscured my view. I decided to stay and watch these humans fight each other…or whatever they were doing. I wanted to see what these humans were capable of. They seemed interesting so far.

Then, a little to my surprise, the masked one spoke. "You are under arrest for attempting to steal the scroll detailing the Hiraishin!"

Hiraishin…what is that I wondered. Maybe some type or kind of food? Was it edible? A scroll detailed it…so it could be a recipe. Whatever it is, it must be valuable for someone to try and steal it. So if it is food, it must be good.

Wait … I understood the human. One of the languages used in Makai must have had its base in this world. I was greatly relieved to know that. I would not have to dedicate any time to learning the language (or even worse, _languages_) that these humans spoke. Hopefully, they do not speak more than one language in this area.

So it was confirmed, I could speak to the humans. Well, I do not think I could talk to these humans in front of me. They seemed too busy arguing and fighting each other.

Then the other human opened his mouth. "As if you could even catch me," the unmasked one said, throwing the black pointed object at the masked one. He had a funny look on his face. It seemed condescending, and it was directed towards the masked human. A sneer maybe? It was difficult to identify the facial expressions on human faces because I was inexperienced with their kind.

The other dodged the black object. Then both of the humans exploded into motion. Almost faster than my eyes could see, they had started a quick series of physical attacks. The masked one launched into barrage of punches and kicks. Just as quickly, unmasked human dodge them and then did a series of backward hand flips, quickly distancing himself from the masked one. Then his hands blurred into a chain of strange signs that involved both hands. "Fire style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!," yelled the one who had just made the hand motions as a stream of fire shot from his opened mouth.

The masked one, more quickly than I thought possible for humans, ran out of the way of the overheated stream. Masked one than pulled out one of the black pointed objects, which by now I had realized were some sort of throwing knives. This one, though, had a paper attached to the end. He threw the knife, and even though the other person had dodge it, it hit the tree behind and the paper _exploded_.

I was astounded. I did not know that humans could breathe fire. Nowhere in my information was that stated. I also did not know that paper could potentially explode. I made a mental note to avoid paper.

The masked one threw himself at the other one, extending a leg in order to kick the other one. Unmasked one caught the extended limb and tried to throw the person attached to it into the nearest tree. While he tried to throw the masked one though, the masked one seemed to disappear. Unmasked human was now holding a log. The unmasked human quickly turned, blocking an attack from the other human. Then masked one stated, after jumping back and making a quick succession of those strange hand signs, "Temporary Paralysis Jutsu." At this, the unmasked human stopped all movement, freezing. Somehow, the masked one had paralyzed the other human. I guessed that it was the…_jutsu _he just used.

The masked one tied up and then picked up the unmasked one and slung the person over his shoulder. Then he jumped onto a tree and started to jump from tree branch to tree branch, heading in one direction.

I decided to follow. Who knows? He could lead me to a place full of more humans. The humans were fascinating. I did not know that they had those abilities. The ability to breathe fire, switch themselves with logs, and paralyze others. They could have more too. I kept a good distance from the human, far out of his sight range. I could see him, but he would not be able to see me.

He led me to a walled…_village_, I think it would be called. The…village was quite large. It was also right in the middle of the forest. So people did live in the forest. He entered the gates, with the other human still slung over his shoulder. The gates were guarded by two other humans, and after the two guards had checked something that he had given them, he entered.

I did not follow. If the guards needed to check something, like identification, I would not have it. I had to decide what to do from this point. After some thought, I decided to shrink myself even _further. _The birds here were really _tiny. _If I was too escape notice, I would have to be _their_ size. I could see some sparrows fly over the wall, I would do the same.

I shrunk myself even _more. _Now I was the size of a _sparrow. _A _sparrow. _Can you imagine it? A phoenix the size of a _sparrow_? At least nobody I knew was here to see this. Otherwise...I would never hear the end of this.

I flew over the wall and landed on the ground. It was…really simple. Nobody was on the lookout for _small little birds._ Once inside, I could see many structure and tall buildings. It was a little cramped, with buildings everywhere. It would be easy to get lost, I think. I was too fascinated with the architecture to notice the humans in the vilage. I could also see, over the village, a mountain with 4 faces carved into it. Why was that? Faces belong on humans…right? Not mountains… I thought…maybe they were trying to give the mountain a personality? Or personalities?

So entranced was I that I did not notice a hand reach out and grab me. I let out a shriek and twisted my head around, causing my eyes to meet cerulean ones. Blond hair and blue eyes…what manner of human had caught me?

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><p>Author's Note: So…guess who caught him. I think it is pretty obvious. For clarification, someone wanted to catch him because he is a bird, and a colorful one at that. Also, Naruto will be a kid in this work.<p> 


	4. Chapter 3: The Miniature Human

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.<p>

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><p>Chapter 3: The Miniature Human, Uzumaki Naruto<p>

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><p>I stared at the blue eyes and then I dropped my gaze and stared at the offending hand. Somehow, this little human had caught me. <em>Me.<em> I was…not happy. A human had caught me. On top of that…this human was really…short. At least compared to the other humans. To me though…at my _sparrow_ size, he was huge.

Then, "Yay! I caught the little birdy!" said the miniature human, with a voice full of glee.

I was annoyed. I was not a "little birdy!" I opened my beak and spat a small ember at the hand holding me. It was a small ember, not intended to actually do too much harm, just to make the human let me go.

An "ouch" could be heard from the small human as he _squeezed _harder. This human did not know the definition of letting go, did he? (Is it even a boy? I will assume he is.) I was even more annoyed now. I did not like being squeezed to death. Well, the actual squeezing did not really affect me, but I did not like being held.

I opened my beak, "Let go of me, you stupid midget human!"

He did. He dropped me like I was a hot ember. Which was not that far from the truth, really.

The midget human stared at me, mouth hanging open like one of the fish demons in Makai. "Wow, I didn't know birds could talk!" the human said, like it was the greatest discovery in his world.

I noticed that the burn that I had given him was gone now. That human…had regenerative powers maybe even better than mine. Was that normal for humans? On closer inspection, I saw that the human had blond hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks. He was wearing shorts (at least, they were really short pants…so shorts?) and a shirt. I never saw whisker marks on any humans before. But maybe it was just because I have not seen many humans yet. He was also, by far, the shortest human I had yet seen.

"I do not know if birds here usually talk, but _I_ can," I said in response, still thinking about his appearance. Then I wondered if the birds here even talked. All I heard them do was chirp. Whatever. I wondered how old this human was, and what was his name? I decided to ask the human. "What is your name?"

The boy(?) did not say anything, suddenly suspicious of me. Why was that? Maybe because I am a talking bird?

"Um, then how about answering this. Are you a male or a female?" I had to know. He just looked at me. He had a confused expression? At least…I think it was confusion, or it could be an "I am sick expression." Maybe he did not understand me? I could rephrase that question. "Are you a boy, or a girl?"

"Uh…What! Of course I'm a _boy!_" The…boy (it was confirmed) seemed shocked that I had asked such a question. Maybe that is why he decided to answer that question.

"Well, it is not like I can tell…at this point, all you humans look alike!" I retorted. I was a little…miffed at his tone. He sounded like he thought I was stupid. "Then…are you going to answer my first question?" I had to ask.

"What first question?" was the reply I got.

"Fine…do not answer if you do not want to…" I was a little…sad at this point. My first conversation with a human was not…going well. He did not even want to tell me his name.

He seemed to notice that I was feeling sad. "Uh…don't be sad. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Believe it!" He said this while striking a pose, with his one of his fists in the air. He beamed at me.

"Oh," I perked up a little, "what am I suppose to call you then? Uzumaki or Naruto? Or both?"

"Huh? Oh…Call me Naruto!"

"Well then, Naruto…it is very nice to meet you. I am Akarui, the Phoenix." Akarui would be the translation for my name in his language anyway.

"Oh…then, are _you _a boy or a girl?"

The little midget human was a little annoying, I decided. I also think he did not know about phoenixes…judging from his reaction. But I had asked the same thing, about the gender I mean. "…I am a male…a boy."

This human was very hyperactive though, judging by his voice and the fact that he had trouble keeping his voice quiet.

I also wanted to know one more thing. "Why are you so short?"

"Hey! I'm not short. I'm only seven! I'm still growing and one day I'll be really, really tall!" I decided I liked this human…_child_. That must be what he was, since he was still growing. The number of years he had stated to be his age was really small, miniscule even._ Seven_? But growing to be "really, really tall" was my goal also, so I could relate.

Then I could hear approaching footsteps.

"Look! It's the demon!"

"Really? Don't let him get away!"

Faster footsteps then started to approach us. I looked at Naruto, who had a frozen look of…maybe fear?…on his face. He turned and started to run in the opposite direction of the two voices. I looked in the direction of the voices, only to see they had come from two other full-sized humans, who were now chasing Naruto. They were spewing what seemed to be threats at the child human Naruto.

At this point, I decided I did not like _those_ two _adult _humans. Issuing threats at a _seven _year old _child_? Furthermore, the _child _had not done anything to provoke them, at least that I knew of. They had just appeared out of nowhere and stated to chase Naruto. My expectations of humans suffered. What kind of creatures would not care for their children?

Then I wondered if they would actually carry out their threats of harming the midget human. At this point, I was a little worried about the midget-y human. Children..are not really adapted for taking care of themselves. I followed, flying after the two humans and Naruto.

Naruto ran into the space between two buildings…an _alley. _I think he was trying to hide in it once he thought he was out of sight of the two other humans. Unfortunately for him…he was not out of sight like he thought he was. And do not some alleys end in dead ends? I followed the two adult humans into the alley.

The alley was indeed a dead end. Naruto was not in sight though. He must have hidden. I could hear him behind the one of the containers that held human trash though. And so could the two adult humans. The two advanced on the container of trash…and Naruto. They definitely meant him harm.

Normally, I would count this as a dangerous situation, but a _child,_ for Kyuubi's sake, was being threatened. My own world was violent, yes, but at least we cared for _children. _And these were _humans,_ what harm could they do me?

I was in the back of the humans, so I flew closer to them. Nothing exceedingly…_violent_ was needed, just something that was enough to make the humans run away. I did not want to destroy the two humans…there was no need, and not to mention Naruto would probably run away from me and then I would never get to talk to him again.

I was now right over the heads of one of the humans. He did not see me, being too intent on Naruto, who was now in view. Naruto's eyes widened quite comically, I think it was at the sight of me. At least, it would have been comical if not for the situation.

I spat an ember at the head of one of the humans. It had the expected result. His hair burned. The human grabbed his hair, felt the fire that now was in it, and ran screaming out of the alley…panicking and looking for something to put his hair out, no doubt. The other human looked around for the source of the fire, but I had flown behind Naruto, out of sight, while he had been watching his partner run away. Seeing nothing, that human also panicked, yelled obscenities at Naruto…and promptly ran out of the alley.

Naruto turned around to look at me with his huge eyes, human children had larger than normal eyes it seemed. "Thanks," he whispered to me.

"You're welcome. It was not a problem, but why were they chasing you?" I was curious. I wanted to know the reason two _adults _of his _own_ species would try and threaten him.

"I don't know. It's just that everybody hates me…and they always call me a demon…" This was said with a…sad, I decided, expression. There looked like there was some kind of moisture in his eyes…but I did not know what that was. And why would other humans call him a _demon_? He certainly was a human. That much I could tell. Maybe the other humans could not?

I did seem to have gained his trust though. I decided I would like to keep it. It would be nice to know someone in this foreign world. I was, otherwise, alone. I did not like being alone. So what I said next was a testimony to that. "Well, I do not hate you…"

"Really?" Naruto seemed so…surprised. He really had not heard that a lot had he? There was water leaking out of his eyes now. What _was_ that? "Then…could we be…friends?"

Friends? Friends…I did not have any in this world…and I would not mind one. I accepted. "Of course."

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><p>Author's Note 1:Akarui apparently is the Japanese word for bright. I think it would work as a name…would it? Anyway, the two humans were civilians, so it would not be hard to chase them away.<p> 


	5. Chapter 4: That Look in their Eyes

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.<p>

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><p>Chapter 4: That Look in their Eyes<p>

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><p>What <em>had<em> I got myself into? Once I had accepted, Naruto had ran up to me, and attempted to hug me. Since I was still the size of a sparrow, this did not go well. I think he did not realize where I was….and almost _stepped_ on me. I lost a few tail feathers…

After that, I had decided to fly onto his shoulder, worrying for my own wellbeing. I also decided to ask him about the water that came out of his eyes. "Why was there water coming out of your eyes?"

"I wasn't crying!" was the defiant answer. So water coming out of human's eyes was called _crying_? That was interesting. I could not…_cry_. At least, I had never done so before. Some of the crocodile demons in Makai could though. Or at least water could come out of their eyes. But I do not think it was for the same reason this human did. He seemed to cry out of sadness and joy, judging from my experience with him anyway. Sadness and joy? Two opposite emotions, yet they seem to cause the same reaction. How unusual. Humans are strange.

"So, where are you going?" I was curious. He was heading _somewhere_, and I did not know much about the town. The more I knew about the town, the more I knew about the humans. I had to satisfy my curiosity.

"I'm going back to the orphanage…" Naruto, I could tell by his tone of voice, did not really want to go back there. I wonder why? What was an _orphanage_ anyway? I guessed that I would find out soon.

Then he said, "Don't you have a home to go to?"

"Me? Not now, I do not."

"Well, you can come with me then!" He sounded so…delighted and hopeful. Why not? I had nowhere else to go anyway.

"I will then…thank you for the offer." I liked this little human. He was much better than the other humans. That is for sure. The ones that had chased him without reason.

"Yay! Now I have someone to talk to! Even if it's a talking bird."

"_What_? I am much more than a talking bird! You should be pleased to know me!" This human child was definitely annoying. But he was fun to talk to. I was not alone anymore…and now it seems, neither was Naruto.

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><p>As we passed by other people, other humans, on the streets, I could feel people glaring at Naruto. I turned to look up at them, but only cold and harsh eyes met my vision. I do not think they even noticed me on his shoulder, too engrossed in their hatred for the human child Naruto, and their eyes locking onto him. That was what their eyes expressed, <em>hatred<em>. Why would they _hate _Naruto? What could a _seven _year old _child_ do to them that could make the _whole_ village look at him that way? It was not just the two adult humans in that alley back there, but all the adults that we had passed so far.

I could hear voices as we passed.

"Demon child."

"Oh, it's that _thing_."

"Why is _it_ still here? We should just be rid of it."

I did not doubt that Naruto could hear it too. Since I was on his shoulder, it was easy for me to feel the way his shoulder hunched up. But even so, his face retained what seemed to be an automatic expression for him. A somewhat silly looking grin.

He ignored them, he did not even look at the glares and stares and whisperers. He must be used to this. Again I wondered_ why_? Why _would_ they do that? I guessed that it was just a human thing. A disgusting human thing.

I decided to try and make him feel better. I said I would be his friend, so his friend I will be. "Do not worry, one day you will prove to them who you really are."

He seemed to perk up at this. "Yeah, one day I will! I'll be the greatest! Believe it!" He really was a determined human was he not? Determination is a good value to have. Without it, no one would ever be able to best a challenge or even try to best the challenge.

He continued on his way to the…_orphanage._ Whatever that was. I was still on his shoulder, which was not a bad place to be. I could see more from up here on his shoulder than the ground and I could ask him various questions about the things that we passed. He was happy to answer what he could. In his own hyperactive way.

"What is that?" I would ask, trying to indicate what I was asking about with a wing.

"Oh, that's Ichiraku's! It's my favorite place in the world! It has the _best _food ever! Believe it!"

"Not that! Over _there_." The questions pretty much went on like that.

We went through a maze of tall buildings and structures, finally turning onto another street. This street was emptier of people than the one that we had just been on. It was a sort of a relief for me to be out of the sight of those hatred filled eyes that had been on Naruto.

We were soon in front of a fairly large building. It looked slightly rundown. I could also hear loud voices issuing from it. The voices sounded higher-pitched than the adult voices I had heard. The kind of higher-pitched voice that I had come to associate with Naruto. There must be children in there I deduced. So this is an orphanage. A place where many children stayed? They must not have parents or guardians of that sort I guessed.

Naruto and I entered the building. I was correct. There were more children in there, and no adult parents that I could see. Some children were even _shorter_ than Naruto. I did not know that was possible. I thought Naruto was midget-y enough. Now there are even smaller ones? How small could these humans _get_?

I noticed that all the children kept their distance from Naruto though. Wow…even these children did not seem to like him. I asked Naruto about it. "Why are all the children they staying away from you?"

"…The Matron tells them too…" I thought I heard a sniff coming from him, but when I looked at him, he just had that silly smile on.

I was about to reply and make a comment about not-very-nice humans when I heard loud and heavy footsteps approaching. I turned my head and saw one of the full-sized humans. An adult. "The Matron," Naruto whispered to me.

"Oh it's just _you_, really, I only keep you around because the Hokage pays me too." The Matron human had a condescending look on his (her?) face. With that said the Matron human turned and walked away.

I did not like him (her?). While Matron human did not chase Naruto around into alleys, he (she?) had that look of hatred in his eyes. He or she…whatever gender the Matron was, I did not particularly care.

I looked up at Naruto. He must have noticed, because then he said, "Don't worry! This always happens anyway. It could have been worse."

If he said so. I was glad that I became his friend though. He should have friends. He is the sort that should have a lot of friends, yet he does not…

Deciding that he might be feeling a little bad, I jumped up onto his hair and began picking at it. "Akarui-san, what are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"I am trying to help. This always makes me feel better. I will not light your hair on fire, I promise." He just looked at me weirdly, or tried to, since I was on top of his head. But he did not do anything to stop me. So I just continued picking at his hair. I do not think anyone noticed. The adults, of which none were present, only glared at Naruto and the children ignored him.

With me still in his hair, Naruto started to head into another room. Curious at where he was going, I stopped picking at his hair and jumped back onto his shoulder.

He entered a door and behind it was a room. In the room was a piece of furniture that looked like it served the same purpose as a nest, another piece of furniture that looked like it was used for storage, and a table. It held all those items, yet it was not a large room. Was this Naruto's room? I think it was.

I wanted to look around, so I flew off Naruto's shoulder and started to inspect the furniture. I questioned Naruto about the furniture and learned that the piece of furniture that seemed to be used like a nest was a _bed. _The storage piece of furniture was a _cabinet_. The table was indeed a table. Curiosity semi-satisfied, I flew back onto Naruto's shoulder.

He then wandered over to the bed and fell on it with a "plop" sound, almost crushing me. I had to jump off his shoulder and fly out the way to avoid losing anymore tail feathers. I could not afford to lose anymore. I puffed up with righteous anger and was about to tell him that he almost crushed me (and my tail feathers) when a loud clanging noise could be heard.

"That's the dinner bell!" Naruto jumped up and started to run out of the room. I flew back onto his shoulder as he ran. Really hyperactive child. No patience at all.

The dining area was quite large, made to fit the many eating children. Naruto lined up and in the front of the line was that Matron human, giving out food from a large gray container. Matron human had a bad look on his (her?) face. It reminded me of a sour fruit that I had once seen before. Matron human must be in a bad mood.

Naruto advanced up the line. We were getting closer to the detestable Matron human. Then he was in front of the Matron human. Matron human glared at him but handed him the food anyway. That was when it happened. Naruto must not have had a good grip on the bowl of food when the Matron human let go of it. It dropped on the floor, spilling and revealing the contents of the bowl. It _had _held soup, but now the soup was all over the floor.

Matron human looked at the spilled soup. I guessed that the human would have to clean it up later. Then the human turned to look at Naruto. "Look what you did! Oh, that's it! I don't care what the Hokage going to say. I've had enough of taking care of the demon brat! Get out, get out now and don't come back!" The human was yelling at top volume. The human must have been in a _very _bad mood.

"I-I…" Naruto was frozen, unable to do anything. Then Matron human lifted up the soup ladle that had been in the large gray container. At this Naruto unfroze and started to run away. The Matron human followed.

Since it had worked so very well last time, I spat another ember at Matron human's hair. Human hair was very flammable, it seemed.

While the Matron human was…_distracted_, Naruto high-tailed it out of the orphanage. Once he deemed it far enough from the orphanage, he stopped. He then turned to me. "…Thanks for that."

"It is never a problem, Naruto. But what are you going to do now that you cannot go back to the orphanage?"

"You'll stay with me right?" He looked at me with almost desperate eyes.

"Of course I will. I am you friend, am I not?"

But what were we to do, indeed?

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><p>Author's note: Ok, finished. Almost 2,000 words, this chapter is. My chapters are getting slightly longer and longer. Oh what is Naruto to do now? Not much happens in this chapter, it's kinda like a filler. I was attempting to develop the character's personalities more. Akarui will probably be like a brother and a very good friend to Naruto. And the picking at the hair thing, well my parakeet does that all the time, either preening himself or his parakeet-y sister.<p> 


	6. Chapter 5: What to do Now?

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character Akarui.<p>

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><p>Chapter 5: What to do Now?<p>

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><p>What were we to do indeed? We could not come back to the orphanage, as stated by the Matron human. So that left Naruto nowhere to go and sleep. Not to mention he did not eat yet. I had not eaten either. Now is that not <em>fantastic<em>?

Well, food could be easily solved, I thought. I would only have to go outside the walls and hunt something down. The only problem was to bring myself and the food back without being noticed.

What _were_ we to do? I turned to Naruto. "We need to get some food, and a place to sleep. Is there any way that we can get those things without the orphanage?"

Naruto kicked at the ground before responding. "No, I don't have any money." Money? Their currency? I guessed that they use money to procure the things they needed. I did not have any either, having just come here.

My first day, and it was not ending well. I had a friend, but said friend did not have anywhere to go…and no food._ Great_. "Did you have any in the orphanage?" I might be able to get it.

"Yeah, I did…but we can't go back there…" He seemed so sad.

"I may be able to get it. Your room had a window. If you could point out which window led to your room, I could break in and get them!"

"You can do that?"

"Yes I can, now we have to go back to the orphanage. Try not to let any humans see you."

Naruto and I headed back to the orphanage. The streets were empty, so we did not have to worry about any humans seeing us. Then we were near enough to the orphanage for Naruto to point out his window. I did not want Naruto to get to close though. The Matron human might have eyes that could see through walls or something and catch him.

"Point out your window please." I hoped that he would send me to the right window. It would not do to get the wrong room.

"It's that one!" He pointed at one of the windows at the front of the orphanage. "Well, I think it is!"

He was not sure of his own room's window? I hoped he picked the right one. I opened my wings and flew over to the window he pointed at. There was a small ledge outside of it, which I landed on.

Now, how to break in? I could break the whole window, but that would shatter the window and make noise and possibly attract attention. I would rather avoid detection at this point. I could scratch a hole large enough for me to get through. I could also melt a hole in the window. Too bad I could not just have been able to open it from outside…

Scratching a hole seemed easiest. I enlarged myself a little, so I could scratch a hole large enough for myself and whatever I was taking out to fit through. Raising a talon, I reached forward and applied one of my claws to the glass. I sliced through the glass quite easily when I put pressure on it. I cut a hole in the glass, one large enough to fit me and whatever I was suppose to drag out. The piece I had cut down fell on to the other side of the window with a soft "clink." Now there was a large hole in the glass, but at least I did not make much noise.

I shrunk myself back to sparrow size and entered the room. Was this Naruto's room? It looked the same…I hoped it was. I flew over to the cabinet, the storage piece of furniture. Now how to open it? I did not have hands. This was quite a dilemma. There was no way I could open it the way I was. Then I remembered something.

I had heard that phoenixes had the ability to turn into humans. I had overheard a conversation once in a Makai, and I heard that we had that ability. I had not known that before I heard. It was not common knowledge. That had interested me, but since I did not need to do anything with that information, I had simply filed it away for future use.

Apparently that future use was now. Now how to turn into a human? That was the part I still did not know. I would have to find out. I landed on the ground and began to think of humans.

A normal human had two arms and hands, two legs and feet, a torso, and one neck and head. _I_ had two legs and wings, along with a neck, head, beak, and body. We both stood on our two legs.

I willed myself to change into a human; into a human's strange body. I held the image of a human in my head. This was the only way I could think of to change myself into a human.

Then I felt the changes. Legs changed shape and lengthened. The knees reversed. Wings lost their feathers and the bones changed to form the bones in a human's arm. Hands and fingers formed at the tip of my wings…_arms_ now. My main body changed too, into a human torso. I lost my bright feathers. My _feathers_! Oh well…humans did not have feathers. My beak disappeared, replaced by a human's mouth. I no longer could feel my tail feathers. I had lost them…

I could feel the changes that happened to me; they did not hurt, but it was a strange feeling. My sense of smell and eyesight did not change though. How curious.

I held the image of a human for a little bit longer, but nothing else changed. I was finished changing, it seemed. The transition from a bird into a human had apparently taken only seconds. But to me, it felt like an eternity.

I examined my new body, moving the new parts of myself. How fascinating. The _fingers_ moved when I commanded them to, and so did the feet. I tried to open my_ mouth_ and I succeeded. I tried to form a word, but only a strange strangled sound came out. I would try again later. I did not have any…clothing. Well, it would have been too much to ask for the transformation to include the clothing. I had never taken this form, and clothing was not something humans had automatically. They _wore _those, but it was a separate thing, not like my feathers.

I moved my legs and feet, putting one in front of the other, and stumbled to the cabinet. So…unsteady. I managed to hook my…_fingers_ around the handle and pull the doors on it apart. It opened. Inside there were shelves and a…mirror on the top.

I looked at the reflective surface. Scarlet eyes stared back at me, with the black pupil being in the center. I touched the mirror with my fingers, curious at my new appearance. Hair the color of the stars came down around my face. _Silver_ hair? Where did that come from? Well, gold, scarlet, and silver were my favorite colors, so I did not mind it too much. Who knows? Maybe the fact that I liked the color had had some influence on my hair color.

I noticed that I was not nearly as midget-y as Naruto, being nearly as tall as some of the adult humans I had seen, but still not quite there. The midway stage between a child and an adult, perhaps? That was where I was as a phoenix, so it made sense that I was there in human form.

I looked at the shelves. Maybe there was some clothes I could use in there. I shifted them around, but they were all too small. Naruto was not my size. Then in the back I could spot some bigger clothes. Those did not belong to Naruto…maybe the previous owner of the room?

I put them on. It took me a bit to figure out what limbs go through what holes in the clothing…but I managed. It did not fit perfectly, but it was acceptable. They were dark clothes…which was not to my liking. I liked the more flashy, bright colors, like my feathers. If I changed back to my original form…would I still have the clothes when I took human form again? Hopefully I would. That would solve the being without clothes problem in my human form. Humans seemed to need clothes, having no feathers and all.

I then turned my attention to the rest of the cabinet, looking at the other shelves. There was a big pouch there…I could use that to hold the items I needed. I placed some of Naruto's clothes in it. That would be useful to him. I also put the larger clothing that was in the back of the cabinet in it too. For me, if I planned to keep using this human form. Human hands _were_ really useful.

Then I noticed an oddly shaped…bag of some kind. It looked like one of the frog demons back in Makai. I opened it, and I saw that there were some round objects in it and some green papers in it. Maybe this was the money? I did not know. I had forgotten to ask Naruto what the money looked like. My mistake, not that I would admit it to Naruto. Anyway, I was sure Naruto would like the green bag back anyway. It was kind of funny looking…but it looked like something Naruto would like to have back.

I looked at the rest of the cabinet. There seemed to be nothing else besides the clothes. That frog demon-shaped pouch must be the thing containing the money, since there was nothing else on the table. Finished with my inspection, I walked, a little unsteadily, back to the window with the hole in it, carrying the clothes pouch and the frog-demon bag.

I would have to enlarge the hole in it to fit the pouch with all our clothes in it, I realized. And I myself would have to enlarge my phoenix size to carry the frog-demon pouch and the clothes pouch. I should have planned a bit better. The hole I had made was not big enough to fit everything like I thought it would be.

I decided to take my original, real form. I imagined myself as I really was. A phoenix. I started to shrink as the human arms once again returned to form wings. My legs shortened and the knees reversed to the correct position. I grew feathers and regained my bird body. Soon the change was complete.

I felt much more comfortable in this form. This was my form, not the human body that I had imitated. I also noticed that the clothes disappeared along with my human form, instead of falling around me. Maybe when I change back to human form it would still be there? Hopefully.

I enlarged myself some more. I was no longer at my sparrow size, but the size of one of the big birds of prey that I had seen in the forest.

I looked at the glass that was the window. Once again raising a talon, I extended a claw and applied it on the glass, a distance away from the hole I had previously made. I cut around the hole I had made before. Now the hole was large enough to fit everything through.

Behind me, I could hear footsteps heading towards the door. I would have to hurry. I grabbed the frog-demon pouch with my beak and tossed it out the hole in the window. I did the same with the clothes pouch. Then I myself slipped out the hole.

The knob on the door had been turned by now and the door was slowly opening. I could hear Matron human's voice. "Now that the demon brat is finally gone, all I have to do is clean up his room and then I would be rid of all traces of him. He probably left behind the money that the Hokage always gives him!"

Too bad for Matron human, I had already cleaned out his room. I grabbed the frog-demon bag and put it in the clothes pouch. Then I grabbed that pouch with my talons and flew off the window sill. Back to Naruto. This was all done before the door was completely opened. Matron human was a really slow door opener, it seemed.

Matron human would probably notice the huge hole I had made. But the human would not be able to do anything about the fact that I had already gone in and taken Naruto's possessions. So it did not matter if the human noticed the hole.

I flew back to Naruto. He was waiting for me.

"What took you so long, Akarui-san? And why are you so big now?" This was not said with any annoyance, just curiosity.

"I met some…complications. And I can change my size." Stupid cabinet with its handle that could only be opened by humans!

Before he could say anything about the fact that I could change size, I handed him the clothes pouch that also contained the frog-demon bag. He opened it and then saw said frog-demon bag. "Yay! Gama-chan!"

He had named the frog-demon pouch. Strange…

"The money is in that, right?" I asked. I had to make sure I had grabbed the right thing.

"Yup! It's in Gama-chan! See! He's full right now!" He showed…Gama-chan to me. I just nodded. What else was I supposed to do?

"So, where do we go to eat?" I was hungry, and I am sure Naruto was also.

"Can we go to Ichiraku's? It has the _best _food ever!"

"Of course, why not?"

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><p>Author's note: I managed to find some time after all and finish this! I was not as busy as I thought I would be. And there, you got to see Akarui's human form. Naruto did not get to see it yet, though. To my reviewers: Thanks so much for the reviews and the information in them! It is really nice to get them!<p> 


	7. Chapter 6: Ichiraku & the Wrinkly One

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.<p>

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><p>Chapter 6: The Ichiraku Human and the Wrinkly Human<p>

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><p>Ichiraku's? Apparently that was where we were going to eat. What <em>do <em>humans eat anyway? Well, I guessed that I was to find out soon.

Ichiraku's was the place that Naruto had pointed out to me earlier, though I did not even ask about it, exactly. It had an open area where humans sat and ate from…_bowls,_ I think it was.

If humans ate from bowls…how was I supposed to with a beak and without hands? Would human food even be edible for me? I could die from something being in human food that I was not supposed to eat.

Well, actually, that was really unlikely, so it should fine for me to eat whatever it was that humans ate. If I had to, I could eat in my human form. I would rather not, because I could not even talk in that form yet. If someone asked me a question, I would only be able to respond with a strangled noise. Oh yes, it _certainly_ was _not that_ inconspicuous.

I could also go back to the forest and hunt down a quick snack. That was more practical. But then I might lose track of Naruto. What to do? And then I would still have to worry about more after that.

After the dinner, I would have to worry about finding a place to sleep. But, right now, food came first. Shelter would have to come later.

Naruto, with me back in sparrow size on his shoulder, walked towards the direction of Ichiraku's. It was on one of the more busy streets, so people were just glaring at Naruto again. I think some of them might have noticed me this time. I ignored them. What could they do to me anyway? As long as they did not know I was a phoenix or could talk, it should not matter. They would just think I was a normal bird. What they could do to Naruto was a different story though. I actually best keep an eye out.

Naruto went up to the front of the…_store_ and jumped onto one of the…_stools_. Was it called a stool? I think it was. I had heard of those and the word _store_ somewhere, maybe from Naruto's explanations of places? Anyway, I was still on his shoulder and I decided to stay there for now.

The human behind the counter noticed Naruto. "Hi Naruto. Back already?"

"Yup! And I even made a new friend!" He motioned to me.

"I can see that." He just looked strangely at me, but did not say anything else. I think he just passed it off as one of Naruto's quirks or something. Good thing he did too. I did not want to be known at the moment, and who knows…maybe humans regularly made friends with birds. With all the strange things that humans did, it would not really be that surprising. The human, I will call him Ichiraku human, spoke again. "What would you like?"

"Can I have a miso ramen?" This was said really loudly and happily. Naruto must love this place. He did say it was his favorite place.

"Sure, coming right up!" replied Ichiraku human. He went to the back of the store.

Naruto then turned his head to me. "Miso ramen's my favorite!" I just nodded and let out an affirmative chirp. If he said so. Who knows, maybe it really was good. But the Ichiraku human…who knows what that human might do to Naruto. The human seemed nice enough, though. But I should still keep an eye out.

Ichiraku human had come back by now. He was holding a bowl. He then placed the bowl in front of Naruto. I was curious, so I decided to jump off Naruto's shoulder. I landed on the rim of the bowl. I looked in. I did not see what I had expected.

The bowl was filled with…yellow looking long stringy…_things. _On top of that was more strange roughly round-shaped…_things_. What was _that_? It looked…more than a little…disgusting. _That _was human food? This was that they ate? How do they live with those things as food? I hoped that there was more to human food than this.

Ichiraku human told Naruto to enjoy the food. Naruto responded with a muffled "Thanks!" At least, I think it was "Thanks." It could have been something else.

He had already started to eat, which was why his speech was muffled. He ate at an astounding rate. The bowl was empty in _seconds_. Almost hit me with the sticks he was holding, too…I really must be careful with my tail feathers, and the rest of myself. Really, this child human was amazing…

Then, "More, please!" Naruto wanted _more_ of that disturbing looking food? It must be good to him then. I resolved to try a little. Naruto thought it was good, so why not give it a try? I jumped off the rim of the finished bowl onto the counter. When Ichiraku human placed another bowl in front of Naruto, I jumped onto the rim. When Naruto lifted the long yellowish…things with the sticks he was holding, I pilfered two of them.

"Hey!" Naruto looked at me.

"What? I wanted to try, and you are not the only one that wants to eat."

"Oh, that's fine then."

"I only took two of the strange yellow long…things." Seriously, what were _those_? And I only spoke because Ichiraku human was not at the counter, so the human could not hear me.

"They're noodles." Wow, he anticipated my question. Well, I had been asking him a lot of questions lately, so I guessed that it was to be expected.

So those…yellow_ things _were _noodles_. I see…

I was still holding on to the two…noodles. So I decided to eat them. I was surprised. The taste was not what I expected.

They tasted…strange. It was not bad, really. It just was _not_ what I was used to. Edible, though. Honestly, I thought it would taste as bad as it looked. At least it did not. And since I was still at sparrow size, I was full. Those two noodles were enough. So I just decided to wait for Naruto to finish.

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><p>"…"<p>

This was ridiculous. How many bowls _had_ he eaten? I looked at the stack of empty bowls that was piled up. And getting added to. He…ate a _lot._ And that was an understatement. I mean, how does one eat his weight in food? That is exactly what Naruto did. It was amazing really.

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><p>He <em>finally<em> finished. After…many…bowls. I was in shock. Humans could eat that much? Did their stomachs fill the majority of their body? Seemed like it did to me.

He thanked and then paid Ichiraku human and then left the store. I was perched on his shoulder again. It was quickly becoming a favorite perch of mine.

By now, it was becoming dark. Now we just had to find shelter for the night. Where were we to stay? I did not know, so I just tried to keep an eye out for a suitable place. _Great,_ we were homeless. What to do, oh, what to do?

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" I did not think so, but who knows, he just may. I hope so.

"No…" He was kicking at the ground again. I do not think he was happy. For good reason.

"Do not worry, we will find a place." I tried to make him feel better. He did not answer me, and just started to look around. For a place to stay, I think.

As a last resort, and I think this as a last resort, we could stay outside. I could anyway. Naruto should not though. Humans seemed to like to stay in those buildings. I think they need those.

"Do you know anyone that might help you?" He might, you never know.

"Um…" He thought for a while. Then, "Yeah! Ojii-san might!" Ojii-san…his grandfather? If he had a grandfather, he should not have been in the orphanage. His…ojii-san must not have been his real one. That is just a guess though.

"And where is your ojii-san?" Where indeed? We would have to find him in order for him to help us anyway.

"He's in the Hokage Tower!" Naruto was getting very loud again. I think he was feeling better now. Maybe at the mention of this ojii-san?

"Then perhaps we should start heading over there?" We really should, before it gets any darker.

Naruto started to walk towards the center of the village. I had no clue where he was heading. I guessed that I would find out soon enough.

After Naruto walked for a while, he stopped in front of a large red tower. This must be the Hokage Tower that he was talking about. Whatever a Hokage was. By now, it was not dusk anymore, but almost nighttime.

He entered the tower. He then started to walk up to the human that was situated at a desk. The _receptionist_, I guessed.

When he went up to the desk, the receptionist did not even look up. The receptionist human just said, "Do you have an appointment?" Bad receptionist, not looking up and all. Humans should pay more attention. It would be very easy to sneak up on them and surprise them if they were always like this. Actually...once I thought about it, not all humans were like this.

I had noticed that all individual humans were…slightly different from other humans. In appearance and personality. The Ichiraku human had not hated Naruto, but many other humans did. He also had looked different from all the other humans. Each human must be different from all other humans

"I want to see Ojii-san!" And then there was Naruto. He was being hyperactive. He was indeed a very…_interesting_ person to be around. _He _certainly seemed different from all the other humans. He was my favorite human by far, because he was my only human friend. He was also a very likable human, unlike most other humans I had seen.

Now the receptionist looked up. And receptionist human saw Naruto…and the expression on the human's face changed. The expression turned into one that did not look…pleasant. I put the human into the category of "those humans that did not like Naruto." In opposed to the category "those humans that liked Naruto." That category only contained Ichiraku human though. The first category included all the villagers we had passed.

"You need an appointment to see the Hokage." The receptionist human said flatly. Yes, the human definitely did not like Naruto.

"But…I need to see the Hokage." By now, I had deduced that his ojii-san was the Hokage. Whatever that was. We did need to see his ojii-san though. Otherwise, where would we sleep? Or rather, where would Naruto, since I would be able to manage just fine outside.

"You need an appointment to see the Hokage," the human repeated. We were in some trouble. The receptionist human would not let us through.

While I was pondering what to do, another human walked into view. This person wore a lot of white, along with a triangular-ish shaped…object on his head. The object was red and white. The human had some wrinkles located on his (her?) face. From age, perhaps? Due to those wrinkles, I decided to call him (her?) wrinkly human.

Wrinkly human saw Naruto. "Naruto! What are you doing here?" Wrinkly human sounded like he (she?) liked Naruto. For now, judging by his (her?) reaction to seeing Naruto, I put him (her?) in the "those humans that liked Naruto" category. For now. Who knows what wrinkly human may do in the future.

"Ojii-san!" Naruto bounced over to wrinkly human. Naruto had literally bounced, jumping up and down. Since I was on his shoulder, the bouncing did not do anything to help my position. I fell off. _I fell off._ Luckily, I managed to get airborne _before_ I hit the ground. I cannot believe I just fell off my perch…I mean Naruto. That was a little…humiliating. I am so glad that no one I knew was here. If someone was, that would be the end of me. And unfortunately, the movement drew the attention of wrinkly human to me.

"Naruto, what is that?" Wrinkly human had asked that.

"It's my new friend." I was flattered. He had said that so happily. Except for the fact that it drew the wrinkly human's attention even more so to me. I just chirped. I was trying to avoid being known as a phoenix for now. I already had a human friend, Naruto, and that was all I needed for now. So no more talking to humans for now. I had already done too much things involving humans anyway.

"I've never seen a bird of that looks like that…" Great, now wrinkly human was suspicious of me.

I hoped that Naruto would not say anything about me being able to talk or being a phoenix. I did not know enough about humans to be sure about them yet. So far, I had seen that humans could be quite…cruel. And that was to one of their _own_ species. Since I was not of their species, they could possibly try and do something to harm me.

I was sure that they would not be able to harm me, but you never know what these humans could do, or at least try to do. For example, they could attempt to send me back to my own world. And I could not let that happen. So for now, it was safer to be on the unknown side.

"Guess what?" Oh no…since this was said with so much enthusiasm, I had a horrible feeling about what was going to happen. "Akarui can _talk_!"

Oh, _stupid_ human midget Naruto. Now what was going to happen to me? Wrinkly human would find out who I was. I_ did_ want to talk to other humans besides Naruto, but that was after I learned more about them, and made sure that I would not be sent back to my world. I did not want to be revealed now. But of course I would be revealed._ Great_.

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><p>Author's note: Somehow…I am not happy with this chapter. Oh well, I tried.<p> 


	8. Chapter 7: Fixing the Problem

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.<p>

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><p>Chapter 7: Fixing the Problem<p>

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><p>There was a chance that this was still salvageable. If Naruto did not say anything else, maybe wrinkly human would believe that he was lying if<em> I<em> did not say anything. I wanted to peck Naruto, but that would draw attention to me. So I could only hope. Please do not say anything else, you midget human. I could only think that though, not tell him. _Do not say anything else, do not-_

"And he's a phoenix!"

_Failure._ My hopes were a definite _failure_. Of course it would be. Oh why did I forget to tell Naruto that he should not tell any humans about me? This was the _last_ time that I would assume the human midget child Naruto knew anything.

I could see wrinkly human's eyes widen. I will assume that it was in recognition. He probably knew about phoenixes. He could have heard the numerous legends about us, which also come with our _descriptions_. In other words, wrinkly human knew what I was without a doubt now. I would not be able to pretend that I was just a really beautiful, but normal bird. _Wonderful_. I had not even been here for a day, and things were _not _going the way they were supposed to.

"A phoenix…" Wrinkly humans was in shock now. His mouth was hanging open. Some moments passed. Then, "What is a phoenix doing here?" This was said really loudly, in surprise, I think. He definitely knew more about us then little Naruto, who did not even realize what the word "phoenix" meant.

The wrinkly human looked at me some more. Moments passed. I opted not to talk. "Naruto, _where _did you find it?"

Now, I was insulted. I had a name, of which Naruto _so nicely_ provided to wrinkly human. And I was most definitely _not _an _it_. So I said so.

He knew I was a phoenix anyway. I would have to resolve this matter myself. "_What? _I would have you know that I have a _name_." Fine if I sounded…not very nice. I was not happy, so I could do that. Because my pride had been hurt.

Now wrinkly human's mouth fell open again. I think it was at the fact that I had talked. Then, "Oh, I'm sorry. Akarui-san, was it?" Oh, the human remembered. I felt better after that.

"Yes it is." Now I was curious. I wanted to know what the object on his head was. "What is on your head?" And knowing his gender would be nice to. "And are you a male or a female human?"

At this, the wrinkly human's mouth fell open again. It did that a lot. It opened and closed, but wrinkly humans still did not say anything. Then, an odd strange came out of him. Was he…not doing well or something? Maybe he could not cope? He sounded fine before. He wheezed to a stop, from whatever sound he had been making before.

"The object on my head is called a hat." So that triangular-ish object was a_ hat_? "And I am a male." So now his gender was confirmed.

Then I realized that my curiosity had sidetracked me. "So…" I directed this at wrinkly human. I was still perched on Naruto's shoulder, though. "We need to talk." Yes, we did. There was the matter that he knew about me and the matter of where Naruto was supposed to stay.

"Yes, yes. We can talk in my office." He walked back in the direction he had come from. Naruto, who had been confused at our earlier conversation, due to not knowing what a phoenix was, still followed without me asking. We reached a door, and we entered.

Wrinkly human sat behind the table. Naruto went to sit in a …_chair_. I think it was called a chair. Apparently humans needed them to sit in. The chair was in front of the table.

I jumped on the table in front of the wrinkly human. For added emphasis on what I was going to say, I enlarged myself from my sparrow size to my bird of prey size. The wrinkly human looked surprised at this. He would probably be surprised at everything I do, judging by his reactions so far.

I started to talk. "So now that you know about, me, I request that you tell _no one_. This goes for Naruto, also. I do not want too much humans to know about me yet." Naruto nodded, I think he knew I was serious.

The wrinkly human examined me. "Then in return, I want to make sure that you will do no harm to this village."

"What do you take me for? It would not do to destroy the village if you are trying to learn about it." I meant no harm to this village. I just wanted to study, explore and learn. That was my purpose in this world. If I wanted to destroy something, I could have just stayed in Makai. "I will not do any harm to this village."

I did not say anything about the_ humans_. Especially the ones that would chase Naruto. To me, the humans and the _village_ were two different things.

The wrinkly human just sat there. I think he was thinking. I hoped he believed me. I would rather not have to leave because the humans in this village became hostile to me. For one thing, I enjoyed learning about it, and for another, being around Naruto was an…_interesting _experience. Even if the midget human could not keep his mouth shut. Another reason to stick near him, to keep an eye on him and make sure that he would not tell any other humans about me. Or was that an excuse to stay near him? I was not sure.

"That is acceptable." I was relieved, since he would not tell any other human about me.

"You should talk to Naruto." Yes, Naruto was the one in trouble now, having no place to stay and all.

The wrinkly human turned to Naruto. "So how have you been, Naruto?" He said that in a kindly matter. He really did seem to care for the child human.

Naruto fidgeted, shifting from one foot to the other an pulling at his shirt. "Um…fine, I guess. Except…" He stopped there. Why did he not want to continue?

"Except for what?" The wrinkly human seemed curious now, but he still spoke with a kindly voice.

"The orphanage kicked me out, and told me not to come back." This was said in such a rush that I could barely understand it.

"Yes, that was the original reason for our visit," I told wrinkly human. "And Naruto said that you would be able to help."

The wrinkly human looked furious. Or it seemed like a really displease expression anyway. I guessed that he was mad. The expression resembled Matron human's before that human told Naruto to leave. Though I believe wrinkly human's expression was due to the at the mention of the orphanage, what did Naruto say? Oh, "kicking him out." I do not think that Wrinkly human wanted to "kick" out Naruto from his…_office._

"The orphanage kicked you out!" Yes, wrinkly human was mad. He twitched, then sighed and pulled out a brown object from his table and place the tip of it in his mouth. He lit the other end and smoke started to come out. Humans do such strange things.

He sat, thinking. I hoped that he was thinking of getting rid of Matron human. I did not like that Matron human.

He should also know that Naruto did not like orphanages. I knew that, and I had known Naruto for a much shorter time. Wrinkly human seemed to have known him for much longer then I have. I wondered what he would do.

"Well, then Naruto, I could give you your own apartment, but you would be by yourself. Is that fine with you?" I guessed that wrinkly human knew that no human in this village wanted to take care of him, if the orphanage did not.

Naruto jumped up and down. At least this time, I was not on his shoulder, but the table. "Yay! I could get my own apartment? Can I?" He wanted it then. I think it would be better for him then the orphanage anyway. He did not have to yell though…My poor abused ears…Then Naruto spoke again. "Besides, I wouldn't be alone! Akarui's with me, right?"

He looked at me hopefully. He wanted me to say "yes." I did not disappoint. "Of course."

This human was just too likable. I did not want to let him down. Also, if he had his own…_apartment_, which I guessed was some kind of living space for humans, I could worry less about being found out. Being found out was at a greater risk in the orphanage then in any private space. There was more chances of being found out if there were more people around me.

I could also practice my human form there, in privacy, where it was more discreet. I still could not figure out how to talk in that form, having only taken it once.

While Naruto bounced up and down, apparently in happiness, wrinkly human made the odd sound again. What _was_ that sound? Oh well, I would try to find out later.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then," said wrinkly human, after he finally stopped making that strange sound. Then, "Naruto, would you please step out of this room? Only for a little while. I would like to speak to Akarui-san."

The wrinkly human wanted to talk to me? About what? Maybe this would be the continuation of our earlier conversation?

Naruto complied with wrinkly human's request. After Naruto was gone, wrinkly human looked at me. I could not tell what expression was on his face. And I thought I had gotten good at that. "Akarui-san, do you care for Naruto?"

I was surprised he asked me such a question. I thought about it. I did care for the midget human. He was only a child, but he was a likeable one. So I told the truth. "Of course I do, why else would I stay around him so much?"

"I see." The wrinkly human's expression seemed to soften. He really did care for Naruto, did he not? "Then, please continue to do so. He needs a friend." He did, indeed. Wrinkled human continued. "I will let you stay in this village, on the conditions that you do not harm it, and that you remain a friend to Naruto."

Those were the conditions? Acceptable. One of them I would _make sure_ to keep. The other, I _intended _to keep. "Consider it done." I believe that the fact that I knew Naruto and…cared for him had affected wrinkled human's judgment, if only a little.

I had also realized that wrinkled human was not just Naruto's ojii-san, but an important figure in the village also. Perhaps a leader of some sort? He must be, in order to have the authority to officially allow me into this village. "Are we finished? Then, you should call Naruto back."

Wrinkled human did so. Naruto, still happy, bounded in. _Extremely _hyperactive kid. "Naruto, I will show you to your new apartment."

"Really? Yay! I get an apartment! Believe it!" Naruto yelled this. My ears will get damaged at this rate…

I flew back onto Naruto's shoulder, back at my sparrow size, as wrinkly human opened the door and led Naruto out. We passed the receptionist human as we headed toward the exit of the tower. We were soon out the door and back outside.

Outside, it was already night time. Humans were still out walking about and I could notice some humans jumping from rooftop to rooftop. I had not noticed them before. I had never looked up on top of the buildings, just the buildings themselves. Humans were indeed interesting.

The darkness of the night was not a barrier to me. I could still see just fine. Was it a barrier to humans? Could they see in the dark? I would have to see.

Wrinkly human led us down some streets. He took several turns as we went on. We just kept walking, following him.

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><p>Wrinkly human finally stopped at one of the buildings. "This is where you apartment is," said wrinkly human.<p>

Naruto stared at it. Then he said, "Can I go in? Can I go in?" Excited was he not? Wrinkly human withdrew an object from somewhere inside his white clothes and inserted that object into a slot in the door. That object must unlock the door.

"What is that?" I wanted to know the name of the object.

"This? This is a key, it can only unlock this door though." A _key_? If I ever used my human form, I would need one, right? Wrinkly human then turned to Naruto. "Here, this is the key to your apartment. Don't lose it. And yes, you can go in."

Naruto jumped in, exploring his new…apartment. I decided to ask wrinkly human for one of those…_keys_. "One of those keys…can I have one? I would need one if I ever get locked out."

"But how would you insert it in the slot? You would need hands." He _had_ to ask that.

"I have my ways." Right now, I did not want wrinkly human to know I had a human form. I was still not familiar with it.

At my answer, the wrinkled human did not say anything, but he held out a key. Good, he had an extra one. I had to enlarge myself to be able to lift it though. I did so and grabbed it with a talon, careful not to scratch wrinkly human and then I flew into the apartment.

Wrinkly human then called into the apartment. "I'm leaving now, Naruto. I hope you enjoy your new apartment."

"Bye, Ojii-san!" Naruto came out of one of the rooms to bid wrinkly human goodbye. I said goodbye also. Wrinkly human then told me it had been nice to meet me.

After he left, I turned my attention to the apartment. I wanted to look around. The apartment was divided into several rooms. One room had a bed and a few cabinets. There was another room that seemed to be used for preparing food. It also had a table and a chair in it. And another had a mirror, along with a strange white porcelain objects in it. The room with a bed in it also had a door that led to an area that hung outside above the ground, but had black bars around it. To prevent humans from falling I think.

Now, Naruto was just jumping around gleefully. He was obviously happy. I asked him about the various objects around the house until I knew the names of everything. Like the…_balcony. _It was the area that hung outside above the ground. The bars of the balcony would be nice to perch on.

I turned to Naruto. "I am tired now, I am going to sleep." I decided to perch on one of the small cabinet things in the room with the bed in it.

"Me too…Good night Akarui! Thanks for being my friend."'

When had he dropped the "san"? Oh, well, it did not matter. "Good night to you, Naruto." I had grown attached to this little human.

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><p>Author's note: Chapter 7 done! Oh, and that "odd sound the wrinkly human" was making was laughter.<p>

So Naruto got his own apartment, and from here on out, it will probably be starting to gain more momentum, not like how these last chapters chronicled only one day. The next few chapters will probably chronicle several days in one chapter, that's what I mean. I will have a few chapters dedicated to the time between now and the graduation though, so no worries. But really, not much action until Naruto's genin days. That's all I wanted to say.


	9. Chapter 8: Speaking and Buying

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 8: Speaking and Buying<p>

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><p>I had grown attached to the child human Naruto. That was for sure. But, <em>he<em> was not the reason that I was here in the human's world.

I had come here to learn about the humans, this world, and satisfy my curiosity. Not to mention that leaving Makai had long been a goal of mine. I had originally planned to just observe the humans, and maybe talk to one or two.

But now…I had discovered that I had a human form. And this would make my life here _much_ more interesting.

With this form, I would be able to interact with the other humans, without them being suspicious of me. But there was one problem. I was still unfamiliar with this form. I would have to practice it.

I would start practicing in the morning.

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><p>In the morning, I decided to go to the room with the white porcelain objects. Naruto had told me that it was a <em>bathroom<em>. It had a mirror, and that was what I wanted to use. So I flew from my perch on the cabinet and headed to the restroom.

In front of the restroom, I encountered a problem. I could not open the door. And Naruto was still asleep, since it was quite early. Why do humans have to put knobs or handles on_ everything_? It was so inconvenient.

Oh well, the problem was not that hard to solve, really. I would just have to use my human form. So I did.

I concentrated on the image of my human form. Then I could feel the changes. My wings formed arms. My legs and feet changed. I grew in size. I lost my feathers…my feathers…

Soon, the change was complete. I glanced back at Naruto to make sure he was still asleep. I would not want to scare him in this form. He had never seen me this way, after all. He would yell and run all around, and then he would be hard to stop.

I reached my...hand out and put it around the knob. Still…unsteady. I would need to work on my coordination.

And the door was not like opening the cabinet back at the orphanage. I could not pull it open. I thought for a while. What had Naruto done to open these kinds of doors? Then, I remembered, he had _turned_ the knob.

I turned the knob on the door. It opened! Pleased with myself for opening the door, I entered the room.

Now, I had to figure out how to better coordinate myself and learn how to talk in this form. In order to talk to humans, you had to know how to talk first.

I walked over to the mirror. I was a little annoyed with how it was still hard to walk straight. The knees on my human form were not what I was used to. They were reversed. It was amazing that humans could walk, really, it was. Oh well, I would have to learn. I _had _to.

Once I reached the mirror, I could not help but stare at it. I looked so…_different_. I would probably never get over how strange humans are, from their actions to their_ appearance_. I looked the same as the first time. Silver hair and red eyes. I had also kept the clothes I had put on before. So my transformation took the clothes with it.

I was relieved for that. If I had to put on clothes every time I transformed, I would probably forget. But humans seemed to_ need_ clothes. So therefore it would not have done to forget about them.

Now, in front of the mirror, I tried to form a word. I only made a choked sound. _Failure_. That sound certainly was not a word.

The human voiced box was…something called the _larynx_, which contained the vocal cords. They also relied heavily on their mouths to help them make sounds. That was in the scroll I had read.

Now, I, as a bird, had a voice box called _syrinx._ I could sing two different notes at the same time, due to the placement of the syrinx. To talk and sing, I had to manipulate the muscles in the syrinx. The syringeal muscles. Also, by controlling the flow of pressure from my lungs, I could change the volume. My own beak did very little to aid me in my speech. I could even talk with my beak closed or even with my beak full of food. That and the fact that I was not a normal bird, helped.

In simpler words, humans and birds made sounds in completely different ways. I would not be able to talk like I had before, in my real form. I would have to figure out how to speak in human form.

It was completely alien to me. How this body worked, and everything really. The scroll that had detailed humans had said nothing on how to act like one or how to talk.

I once again tried to form words in the mirror. I _failed_. _Again_. The location of the voice box confused me. I was not used to making noise from there. I tried again. Humans could not speak from anywhere else, so eventually, I should be able to get it.

Then, I decided that I would have to think of this in a different way. Perhaps I should not aim for a word yet. Maybe I should, for now, just aim for a sound that did not sound strangled and like I was dying.

So I tried again, but this time, I just tried to form a sound that did not sound choked out and strangled. I would try until I succeeded.

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><p>I had finally succeeded. I made a sound that did not sound half-strangled! Once I had figured out how to do that, I made little variations to the way to way I formed the sound. Doing that, I could make different sounds.<p>

I now understood how to use the voice box, but I still did not understand how humans used their mouths in correlation to the voice box to talk. Another mystery I would have to solve.

Naruto was still asleep. It was not that surprising. I had woken up early. I did not need nearly as much sleep as the child human Naruto did. I decided to continue practicing until he woke up.

* * *

><p>I kept practicing. But I would have to try again later. This was not working. I still could not get it right. I would have to try again later. I <em>would <em>try again later.

Outside the door, I could hear Naruto move around. He was awake then.

I turned back into a bird and flew out of the room. I had left the door open for that purpose.

"Good morning Naruto." I greeted him.

"Good morning Akarui!" He sounded really happy. I guessed that with all these turns of events, I would be too, if I was him.

"Are you going to eat anything?" I was a little hungry.

"Yeah! Can we go and eat ramen?" Ramen? Again? He just had that yesterday.

"You just ate that yesterday." He did, and eating too much of the same food limits the amount of nutrition gained.

"But I want to eat it again!" He should not though, that food cannot be that good for him. A food that looked like that…just cannot be good.

"You should eat other things, and besides, this apartment is empty. That means you have to go and buy more food. And more than just ramen. I want to try more food than just ramen."

Yes, some human foods might actually taste good. Not that ramen was bad or anything, it was just that I wanted to try more food.

"Oh yeah! I need to buy food!" Yes he did, as of now, we had no food in his apartment.

"And put all your things away." Like the clothes in the clothes bag. They should go back into one of the cabinets, I thought.

"Um…I'll do that later!" He just did not want to put them away. Oh well, as long as he did so, it would be fine.

He started to run out the door. I joined him on his shoulder.

He was heading to something he called…the grocery market now. It was a little ways away, but not that bad. He happily (and hyperactively) walked over to this…market.

When he entered, I saw that there were rows and rows of food. So much food…There were many kinds of foods, ranging from some green plants to meat.

At the sight of the green plants, Naruto scrunched up his face and said, "Vegetables. Yuck!"

The green plants did not seem to be that bad. At least, it looked healthier than the yellow…noodles he was eating before. Better too, personally. It was a more…natural color.

And speaking of the yellow noodles, he went to a row that was labeled "Ramen." Somehow, I was not surprised. He went to side of the row and began to pluck some of the things labeled "Instant Ramen" off the shelves.

"Naruto, you cannot just eat the…ramen." I was pretty sure that humans needed more variety in their diet. At least I did. And I did not want to eat ramen all the time; that was for sure.

"But ramen's the best!" He would say that, of course.

"You can get some, but please, buy some other types of food." Yes, please do. I was sure that he and I would _not _be able to survive solely on ramen.

"But-"

"You will only be able to grow really, really tall if you eat other kinds of food besides ramen."

That did it. Naruto's eyes widen and then he ran into one of the other aisles. He ran around the store, picking up, almost randomly, it seemed to me, food from all the aisles. He even picked up some of the green…_vegetables _that he did not seem to like. Of course, he still bought the ramen.

He managed to buy all the food items without a problem, using the money from his frog-demon bag, Gama-chan. That was good. I would not have to light anyone's hair on fire. Wrinkly human would not like that, I guessed.

Once he was finished, he carried out all the food items in a big bag that the market had given him.

Now we only had to go home…did I say _home_? Strange…I had begun to think of that place as home…

Anyway, we only had to go back to Naruto's apartment, and put all these things away. Somehow, I did not believe that Naruto was an organized person.

We reached his apartment and he took out his key and unlocked the door. He then entered. The apartment was the same way it had been when we left. That was good. You never know when someone could break in, like I did into the orphanage.

He went over to the room where food was to be prepared and open the _refrigerator._ I had asked him about that rectangular container yesterday. It was supposed to keep food cold, or something like that. I was still on his shoulder at this point. He put some of the things he bought, like the thing called…_milk _into the refrigerator.

I wanted to see the inside of the refrigerator, so I jumped onto one of the shelves inside. It was _cold_ in here.

But, just as I was going to leave, the door shut on me! Naruto…had not realized I was in here! Oh…that human midget…_child_! I _had_ to teach him how to be more _observant. _This was horrible, he had not realized that I was in here. I really did have to teach him to be more observant. I am sure that the skill would help him more in the future anyway, with the fighting humans that I had seen around here and all. Whatever _those_ humans were. They seemed dangerous…

But anyway…Now, how to get out of here? It was cold in here. But, the shelves were high enough for me to take a larger form, and the refrigerator was not that crowded with food items. So I took a larger form. I then tried to push the door open. When that failed, I had to wonder what to do next.

What could I do? I could yell and Naruto would _probably_ hear me. That was probably the best thing to do, given my situation and all. Yes, I would have to. Can you believe it? I needed help because I had been locked in a _refrigerator_? I could destroy the whole thing, but…it was not my refrigerator, and besides, Naruto only had one.

Yes, I would have to yell…

"Naruto! Open the refrigerator door!"

"Huh? Akarui? Where are you?" Note to self: teach him how to use his brain. He will need it in the future. Really, at this point, he was…not very bright. But he was still a child, so it was fine…for now, at least.

"I am in the refrigerator, so please open the door." Please, it was really, _really_ cold in here.

The door opened. "Akarui, how did you get in there?" This child human Naruto…had not realized he locked me in.

I sighed. "Do not worry about it, Naruto. It will not happen again." That was for sure. No more stepping into refrigerators for me. And I was not going to tell Naruto he managed to lock _me_ in. Too…humiliating. Really, here in this world, I had gotten caught in more embarrassing situations in two days than in my whole life in Makai.

What had I gotten myself into? What had I gotten myself into, indeed?

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><p>Author's note: Ok, so it won't speed up until Akarui learns how to talk…probably. Don't worry, Naruto will be at the academy soon.<p> 


	10. Chapter 9: Ninja Academy?

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto not am I making any profit from this work. (Besides feeling happy with all the nice reviews)<p>

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><p>Chapter 9: Ninja Academy?<p>

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><p>After Naruto got his apartment cleaned up and actually able to be lived in, it was much more comfortable. I spent the days learning new words and talking to Naruto, trying to teach him how to use his brain. He was not stupid, but…I do not think anyone ever took the time to teach him correctly. So he was a little slow, but he learned a little.<p>

I also spent the mornings, before Naruto was awake, taking my human form and learning how to talk. It was harder than it seemed. By watching other humans and Naruto, I finally got it. I spent a _long_ time in front of the mirror, but I finally mastered it. I could now speak in my human form.

Today was the day that I would show it to Naruto. He had never seen me in that form before. I think he would like it. He would be excited. There were also many things that I could do in human form, and I wanted to go around the village in that form.

So in the morning, I was practicing speaking. I was able to speak quite well (in my own opinion) now, and so I was quite pleased. I was waiting for Naruto to wake up. He slept a lot, and for long times. He was very difficult to wake up. But I just waited.

Then I heard him move. It was about time! He takes too long…Anyway, when I heard him move, I waited a little more. He was probably still half-asleep. Then I heard him move toward the area where food was prepared…the_ kitchen_, I think Naruto called it.

I went out of the…restroom to the kitchen. Naruto was there. I was in my human form. I just stayed still, wanting to see his reaction when he saw me.

He saw me. His eyes widened. Then he jumped up and yelled. "Ahh! Who are you!" Very loud child…I would never get used to it, would I? He was pointing a finger at me as he was yelling.

"It is me, Akarui…" Now to see his reaction!

"Akarui…you're human? Are you sure you're Akarui?" His reaction was not as funny as I anticipated. I thought he would go running around. But no, now he thinks that I was a human? And he asked if I was sure I was myself. Of course I was sure that I was myself. How would I not be? If I was someone else, I would not be me.

"Yes, it is me, Akarui. This is my human form." I explained it to him. Now…maybe his reaction would be better.

When my words registered in his brain, his mouth opened, but no words came out. I had come to associate that motion with surprise. Then, "Waah! You have a human form?" This was yelled. Now he was running in circles…I thought that would have happened earlier, but I was wrong…He still was running around though.

I made a funny sound. When I realized that I was making a strange sound. I stopped. What _was _the sound that I had been making? I had heard it before, from wrinkly human, but what _was_ that? I had barely realized that been making that sound, because I was amused by Naruto.

Then I looked at Naruto. He now had another expression on his face. I could not tell what it was. "It's not funny." But it was. So I told him so.

"Yes, it was." Another strange expression from the midget-y human. I really needed a book or something that could tell me what all of the human's strange expressions meant. As for me in my human form, well…my face was not as expressive as Naruto's. My face looked a little blank, but that was because I could not make any faces, not knowing what expressions were suppose to go with what emotions.

Really…How do humans handle all that? I, in my real form had never used my face to express emotions. So I guessed it would make sense that I would not be able to express emotions properly with my human form. Oh well, I would work it out later.

Then I felt something grab my hand. "C'mon! C'mon! Let's go out to the village then!" He was now really excited. I guessed that he was surprised that I had a human form, but his happiness probably overwhelmed that.

"Fine. Let's go." This would be my first time out in town with this form. I hoped I would be able to walk around correctly. When I had been practicing speaking, I had also been practicing my coordination…but, it still was not perfect.

We exited Naruto's apartment. This was my first time out in my human form. The world looked a little different to me now. Even though my eyesight and hearing stayed the same as it was when I was in my real form, I had always been on Naruto's shoulder then. Now I was taller than Naruto, so everything seemed a little different.

"Where do you wish to go, Naruto?" I let him choose. I would not be able to go to any particular place without him, anyway. I still did not know this village very well. If I led, we, or at least I, would quickly get lost…

"Let's go to the park!" The…_park_? What was that? I guessed that I would find out soon.

Naruto, still holding onto my hand, led me in one direction. The direction of the park, I presumed. We walked for a while, with me trying to memorize and map out the village in my head. So complicated, with all the streets and all. This village was pretty big.

It also had a lot of humans. We passed many humans on the way to the…park, but they either ignored us or just glared at us. I got many odd looks. I could not tell what it was, but I guessed that they wondered why I was with Naruto. Not a lot of humans must hang around Naruto.

I just ignored them, and Naruto just had a large…grin on his face. It was probably his own automatic expression or something.

We soon stopped in front of what I guessed to be the park. It was a large expansive area, with many trees and grass inside. A very peaceful looking place. Except for the place where there seemed to be many human children playing around a large structure. And a box full of sand. What was the box of _sand _for? What would humans do with a box of _sand_?

Well, my question was answered quickly afterwards, when a couple of human children ran into the box of sand and started to…_play _with it. Humans play with _sand_? Really, they do the oddest things.

But to my surprise, Naruto did not stop here. He went further into the park, where the trees were much denser and packed more together. We walked further and further in, even after _I _could not hear the screams of happiness (I am guessing it is happiness, what else could it be?) from the children at the play area.

We walked in for a little bit more. Then I could see a clearing ahead. In there, two people seemed to be fighting each other…sparring maybe? One person was using one of the black throwing knives while the other had no weapons. They seemed to be sparring.

Weapon human lunged forward at weaponless human, but weaponless human seemed to dance away and he missed. Then weaponless human was suddenly behind the weapon human. He attempted to kick weapon human across the clearing. He succeeded.

Weapon human flew, even though humans are not supposed to, across the clearing. Weapon human quickly caught himself and landed on his feet. Impressive. Then he flickered, almost out of sight of my eyes, and lunged at the other human, reaching out an arm to hit the other human. The other human blocked his arm, and then grabbed it to try and throw him. He succeeded, again. Weapon human, once again, flew across the clearing. Weapon human was clearly not as good as the weaponless human.

The fight was devoid of the techniques that I had seen in the battle I saw before. Jutsus…I think it was called that. This seemed to only be physically battling, hand-to-hand combat. It was quite interesting to see. These humans moved with an impressive speed, and even had enough strength to throw other humans. It was quite interesting.

In the clearing, the two…fighters stopped. They then nodded at each other and seemed to exchange a few words. I did not catch the words though.

Then to my surprise, they nodded in my direction and then left the clearing. They had noticed Naruto and me? They had been fighting, and they still noticed us? These humans were quite something…to notice us while we were a distance away and while they were also fighting.

What were those humans?

I looked at Naruto, who had an interesting look on his face. Awe, maybe? I would have to ask him what those humans were.

"Naruto, what were they?" I hoped that he knew, because I really wanted to know what they were. They were not the humans that were usually on the streets. Those humans were slow. These humans moved differently. Maybe they were like humans that I had noticed on the rooftops?

Naruto answered me. "They're ninjas! Shinobi! I want to be one when I grow up!"

_Ninjas_? _Shinobi_? What were they? They were humans too, that was very clear. But they seemed to be a completely different type of human. I was confused. Humans should be like other humans, but these humans seemed different. I made a mental note to learn more about these humans. They were very interesting.

Is this why Naruto had brought me here? He wanted to see these…ninjas? I guessed so, because after the…ninjas left, he led me out of the area. We even left the park after that.

* * *

><p>After we left the park, I asked Naruto if he wanted to eat at Ichiraku's. It was lunchtime. Of course, he had answered with a "yes." More liked yelled it…<p>

I decided that I should probably turn back in to a phoenix. I would have to eat less that way. So I told Naruto to wait and then I went into one of the alleyways. There was no one in there, so I turned back into my real form. I was still the size of a sparrow, though. But it was still a relief. This form was always easier to handle. Phoenixes have a much better form than humans.

After that was complete, I flew back to Naruto. He then headed to Ichiraku's. Like before, he ordered a miso ramen. That seemed to be his favorite. I just took two noodles. That was enough for me.

After that lunch, Naruto decided to go back to his apartment. I just stayed on his shoulder, thinking.

My trip in the village in my human form had been very interesting. I had a lot of things to think about. I had not talked to any other humans, but that was fine. I could talk to them later, anyway.

I also decided that I needed to get some money somehow. I could not get all my money from Naruto. If I had human money, I would be able to buy books and scrolls and read more about this place. But where could I get money? How do humans even make money? I would have to figure that out.

While I was thinking this, Naruto had stopped. I looked to see why he had done that. Wrinkly human now stood in front of him.

"Hello, Naruto." Wrinkly human looked like he was going to give Naruto good news.

"Ojii-san!" Naruto went up to wrinkly human.

"Naruto, I have good news for you." Good news? I wondered what it was. I am sure that Naruto wondered what it was also.

"Really? What is it? What is it? Do I get free ramen?" Does he never stop thinking about ramen?

Wrinkly human made that funny sound that I could not identify. "No, Naruto, it's even better. I enrolled you into the Ninja Academy."

Naruto's eyes went wide. Then he cheered. "Really, Ojii-san? You have? Yay! You know what? I'll become the best ninja ever! Believe it!"

Naruto…sure aims high. Now he was going to become a ninja? One of those fighting humans? Somehow, this thought disturbed me. It seemed more than a little dangerous.

Then, wrinkly human made that funny sound and then said, "Yes, yes, I'm sure you will, Naruto."

Then Naruto looked back at wrinkly human. "Hey, the best ninja in the village is you, right Ojii-san? And you're the Hokage." He thought for a while. "Then I'll become Hokage!"

The wrinkly human smiled. "The academy will start three days from now, so be ready Naruto. It starts at seven in the morning." Three days? That was quite…sudden.

"I'll be ready!" But I was thinking. _Seven _in the _morning_? Naruto always slept in until nine or ten. He would probably oversleep and totally miss the class. I would probably be the one that would have to wake him up. He was…really hard to wake up. Actually, he was quite near _impossible_ to. I sighed.

But he was going to an _academy_, right? An academy is a place where you learn things… so if I went along with Naruto, I could learn more things! I would definitely have to go along with Naruto.

Then wrinkly human looked at me. "Hello, Akarui-san."

"…Hello, wrinkly human." Wait…did I say that _out loud_? Oh…I did not mean to do that. Too late.

The wrinkly human made a choked sound. I think he was surprised. He made that sound for a while.

"Ojii-san, are you OK?" Naruto was concerned. By this point, so was I.

"I'm fine, Naruto," he gasped. Then he stopped. He then turned to look at me again. "So, how have you been doing, Akarui-san?"

"I am fine." I was, but…would he know of a way for me to make money? He probably would… "Is there a way that I could make some money? I want to buy some things that might be useful."

He just looked at me for a while. I think he was thinking. "For now, I can give you some money, but you will have to make some later." That was good, at least for now, I had some money. "I'll give it to Naruto for now, since you probably can't hold it."

"Thank you!" I was happy, maybe now I could buy some books and things like that.

He handed the some money to Naruto. Then he said, "Don't forget, Naruto. The academy is three days from now."

"I won't!" Well, if he forgets, I would remind him, anyway.

After that, wrinkly human left.

And the academy would start three days from now.

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><p>Author's Note: So now the academy is going to start. This was just the chapter leading up to it. Hope you enjoyed it anyway. The funny and strange noise is laughter. Sorry for the short fight scene, but I just wanted it to be a little spar.<p>

And to my reviewers: You have my thanks, as always! Thanks so much for the nice reviews! They really made my day! My version of the academy will have to be different, since Naruto is already seven. Oh well. Thanks anyway, though!


	11. Chapter 10: In the Academy

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.<p>

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><p>Chapter 10: In the Academy<p>

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><p>The academy would start only three days from now. It was sudden, but that was fine.<p>

Naruto was still happy from hearing the news. I was also. If Naruto went to the academy, I could go to. And since it was an academy, I could learn many things. Including how exactly those…ninja humans did all the things they did. Like breathe fire and those other techniques.

And about humans…I also needed to tell how to discern whether a human was a male or female. At this point, I could tell that some humans differed from each other, but I had noticed that there were two types of distinct humans. Male and female? But I still was not quite sure. I guessed that if I saw more people, I would soon be able to tell. The academy would be a good place for that. There would be other people, right?

The three days would pass fast though. In the meantime, I guess I could fly around the village and learn more about the place. Or I could explore with Naruto. Who was still jumping around out of joy.

I made some more plans about the academy. I would shrink myself into sparrow size and either just stay on Naruto's shoulder or his pocket. Actually…the pocket idea was a bad one. He would probably forget I was in there and accidently kill me or something by accident.

Another thing to think about was something I had noticed. Naruto liked to….what was the term he used? Prank people…I think. In other words, he liked to make trouble. Well, it did not really bother me…but would the academy change that in any way? Possibly…

What effects would the academy have on him, anyway? I hoped it would teach him how to use his head. That was what a school was for, right?

Well, it would start soon. In the meantime…I will convince Naruto to buy a very, very loud alarm of some sort. One that would make enough noise to wake him up. This may take a while…

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><p>The….alarm clock, as it was called…was a<em> bad<em> idea_. _Not only did it fail to wake up Naruto, with him sleeping right through it, it made too much noise.

Naruto had put it right next to my favorite sleeping spot, which was one of the cabinets in his room. I had expected it to ring after I was awake. But…

Somehow, he had set it to ring at the wrong time. It rang at three o' clock in the morning. I was still asleep. Of course, the alarm woke me up. On top of that, since it was so loud, I was extremely surprised. It was a little scary…I thought something really bad had happened. As in someone attacking me.

So, in my surprise, I had shrieked and then attacked the alarm clock. The only thing left of it now is the scorch mark on my…I mean _Naruto's_ cabinet.

Naruto…had _slept_ through the whole thing. So, sleeping through the alarm clock might be explainable…but sleeping through me shrieking and setting his alarm clock on _fire_ was…something else.

So I woke up…in an extremely bad way. I was…understandably…in a bad mood. The alarm clock was gone, destroyed in my frigh…I mean fury, and it still could not wake Naruto up.

By now, I was deeply worried. If Naruto ever fell into a coma…no one would ever know because that was the state he was always in when he was sleeping. Naruto really is something else…

So on the day that the academy was to start…I had woken up to early. What was I supposed to do?

Then I decided that I might as well just practice my human form. That would help speed up the time.

The hours passed, until it was time for Naruto to wake up. Now for the hard task of doing what the alarm could not. For doing the impossible. Waking up the human midget Naruto.

"Naruto, wake up!" I waited. No movement. "Wake! Up!" Did not work.

Seriously? What could wake up this human? Well, he likes ramen…

"Ichiraku's has a ramen sale today!" Let us see if that worked…

"Huh? What? Where?" Oh, it worked. Though I do not think he realized what I said. He probably just woke up at the word "ramen." He also seemed to be tangled up with the sheets on his bed. Beds seemed to be quite a hassle. Nests and branches are better.

"Good morning, Naruto."

"Uh…good morning…" He looked around. His eyes fell to the scorch mark on the cabinet. "Um, what happened to the alarm clock?"

What should I tell him? "You did not wake up to it, so I got mad at it." Well…it was better than telling him what _really_ happened. And it was the truth…well, close to it.

"The academy starts today." His eyes widened.

"Ahh! Am I late?"

"No, but you will be if you do not get ready." He ran around getting ready.

While he did that, I went into the kitchen. I was using my human form and I was trying how to figure out how to cook some of the instant ramen.

So, first you put in the hot water….But where do you get the hot water? This was so confusing…Then you pour it into the cup. Um…what do you do, pour the hot water in? What if it falls out? Then you wait three minutes…why three minutes? Why not four or five? Why even wait? It was supposed to be instant, but it was not…Human food was too confusing.

I thought this was supposed to be easy…but it was not. I just stared at it. Nothing happened. Then Naruto came in and saw the ramen. He bounded over and made it in…a little more than three minutes. He got some for me too. How come I could not do that? Naruto could do it…

Oh well, I will try again some other day.

Naruto finished eating before I did, but that was expected. I finished soon also.

"Let's go! Let's go!" In a rush, is he not?

"Fine. We can go now." I turned back into my real form and flew onto Naruto's shoulder. He ran out of the apartment. He really was in a rush.

After he ran around for a bit, taking turns here and there, we finally got to the academy. There was a bunch of human children and their parents there. So, these would be Naruto's classmates?

But…they all stayed away from him. They probably all belong in the "those who do not like Naruto" category. That cannot be too good…

Soon, everyone was let into the academy building. Naruto got assigned his class. I myself got a few strange looks, since I was still on Naruto's shoulder, but they were easy to ignore. After a while, the humans who stared stopped staring at me.

Naruto went to his classroom. There were many other children in there…but I honestly was not that interested in them.

Soon, a teacher came in. He (I will just assume that the human was male) introduced himself as Iruka-sensei. I decided to call him Iruka human. He was wearing a vest and dark pants. He had a metal and cloth…thing around the top of his head.

So he would be the teacher? Interesting. He was apparently something called a "chuunin." Whatever that was. He seemed to notice me…but like everyone else, he just gave me a strange look and then did nothing else. I seemed to be just a brightly colored bird; that was all.

Now, would it start already?

Soon he started to teach. I listened to him. I would be able to learn many things this way, so I was happy. Even though he was…not that interesting to listen to. He droned…a lot.

And I could not say the same about Naruto. He seemed to have some trouble concentrating. His gaze would wander around, seemingly unfocused. Yes, he was not paying very good attention.

Iruka human kept droning on and on. I personally thought what he was saying was interesting…but half the class of human midgets did not. Was that one human _sleeping_?

Then he said something that caught my attention. "What do you know about the Hokages?" At this, Naruto seemed more interested.

One human child near the middle of the classroom raised his (her?) hand. "There were four hokages so far. But right now, the Third Hokage is the current one."

So that wrinkly human was the third one?

"Now, can you tell me about the Fourth Hokage?"

The same human child spoke. Smart human child. "The Fourth Hokage gave his life to kill the Kyuubi."

…_What_? This "Fourth Hokage" _killed_ the Kyuubi? That was impossible. No human would be able to _kill_ the Kyuubi. It could not be done. It was the_ Kyuubi_. The greatest of the nine tailed beasts. It simply could not be killed.

But then, what happened to the Kyuubi? This was the world he was in currently…but I had not felt his presence at all. I assumed that the Kyuubi was just too far…but now the humans say that the Kyuubi is dead? That cannot be right…I do not think that humans had the capabilities to kill the Kyuubi.

But if this was true…then there were even more reasons for me to be careful around humans.

I decided to keep an eye out for the tailed beasts. They were also supposed to be here…but now that I thought about it, I had not felt any of their presences. This could simply be due to distance, but could something else have happened between them and the human mortals?

I would have to keep this in mind.

The Iruka human continued to drone on. I tried to listen again…but I was distracted. Hard to listen when you hear that the greatest of demons had been killed by a mere _mortal_. Oh well.

After a while, I then began to wonder about something. Is this not a ninja academy? And a ninja was one of those fighting humans. If this was the case…why were we learning history? Makes no sense.

Then Iruka human began to tell us about something called "chakra." This was fascinating. Apparently, the jutsus that ninjas used needed this. It was a mixture of physical and spiritual energy. He kept talking about it. And I listened.

After I heard this…I began to wonder if I would be able to use it in my human form. I might be able to...or maybe not. It certainly was an interesting prospect.

In my phoenix form, I did not know if what I used was this "chakra." It could be, or it might not be. I was always able to generate fire and things like that…So _was _it chakra?

Even in my human form, generating and using fire was not hard. I found that out after I burned down one of Naruto's pieces of furniture. ( It was not a big one. It was a really small piece of furniture. I do not think Naruto even noticed. Besides, it was an accident. I did not know that I could do that, and it was not on purpose.)

After more of the day passed by, he said, "Tomorrow, we will be going outside. You will be learning Taijutsu."

Taijutsu? What was that? Well at least tomorrow, and probably the days after, would be interesting.

The class ended, along with the first day of the academy. What an interesting place. What could the days after bring?

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><p>Author's note: I am not going to chronicle every day of the academy. From now on, Naruto and Akarui will still be going…but I am not going to specifically note that. Just saying. Sorry that this chapter is sorta short. Let's just say I had a headache and could not think. So there may be some mistakes here and there.<p>

**Read: The Academy will work like this. You go to school, and after you go for a while, you have the option to take the graduation exam when it rolls around every year or so. So that is why Naruto failed more than once and is still in the same age group as his classmates. The normal time to take it is just at 12. **


	12. Chapter 11: The Days After

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.<p>

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><p>Chapter 11: The Days After<p>

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><p>The days in the academy were interesting, but there was always time afterwards. The time afterwards was the time I used to explore the village and learn things.<p>

So it was today, after school, that I decided to go to a place Naruto had told me was called a _bookstore._ From what I could see, the bookstore sold books, which contained a lot of information. And I did have some money from wrinkly human.

I wanted to get some books that could tell me more about humans, this world, and possibly what happened to the Kyuubi. Learning more about…_chakra_ would be nice too. It seemed interesting. And I could tell Naruto about it…since he never seemed to pay very much attention in class at all.

So I decided that I would go today. I wondered if Naruto would want to go. Probably not, but maybe…

"Naruto, I am going to the…bookstore place. Do you wish to go?" Now to see his answer. Currently, we were eating in his apartment and I was in my phoenix form.

"Nope! I'll do something else." He did not want to go. That was fine with me.

I turned into my human form. I could now walk…more or less correctly and pronounce most words. Some words were hard to pronounce though…

"Bye Naruto, I will be back later."

"Bye!"

I left the apartment. Once I was outside, I looked around. Let me see…the bookstore was…that way? Or was it in the other direction? I could not remember. That was not too good.

I would have to ask a human. Asking a human for directions…seemed a little…bit off to me. I did not want to ask a human for directions. What kind of phoenix asked humans for directions? But I would have too…Oh well, that was what I would have to do. It was not that bad, anyway…

So, since there was a little group of humans down the street, I decided that I would ask them. They were humans…but not children and not adults. They were in the midway stage between a child and an adult. _I think _they were females…but I could be wrong. Usually females had longer hair, but that was not always the case. Humans were too confusing.

"Excuse me, but can you tell me where the store called the bookstore is?" They would probably know. If not, I would have to ask someone else.

I waited for an answer, but they just stared at me. Was something wrong with them? Then one of them made a really high pitched sound. A squeal, maybe? It hurt my ears a little.

Something was indeed wrong with them. Instead of answering, they just made a weird sound that was definitely _not_ a word.

Since they were not going to answer, I decided that I would have to leave. So I did. The humans I talked to before, though…they kept following me. It was a little…unnerving. Humans do the strangest things. That was for sure.

So I walked into a large crowd of people…and tried to lose them. Persistent, were they not?

Luckily, it worked…but now I was totally lost. Where was I? I had never been in this part of town.

Being a human was so_ hard_. How did they remember streets and things from the ground? So difficult. Maybe I should respect humans for that more…

So, I was now lost. Lost. _Me_. _Lost._ I never get lost…except when I was on the ground…

I decided that I hated being on the ground. And being lost. It was annoying. I sighed. I decided that I would stay in this human form a little longer and try to find my way around. If I could not find something I recognized in twenty minutes, I would turn back into my phoenix form and fly back to Naruto's apartment or the bookstore. Whichever one I saw first.

The problem was that I did not know what the bookstore looked like from the air, only from the ground, which was the reason that I used my human form.

Anyway, I just continued to walk around. Bookstore, appear already. Really, I needed something that I could use to get around town. And something to tell me the name of the thing that I could use to get around town.

I really still did not know anything about this world. It was an alien world. And this was still only a portion of this world. So much to explore, to learn, and to know. It was almost too much. But it was also exciting…how many times do you get to explore a totally new world?

And so, I continued to walk around. Really, I liked it when I was with Naruto better. At least he knew his way around the village and was fun to talk to.

After walking around for around fifteen minutes and asking directions from some adult humans I saw, I finally reached the bookstore. It was a relief. This village was so crowded and big. It was too easy to get lost in.

I went into the bookstore. Inside, I could see rows and shelves filled with scrolls and books. The place smelled like paper, which was not too strange, considering its contents. There was a person behind a counter. The seller of the books? I believe so. The human greeted me and I said "hello" back.

From there, I went to look at the shelves. My last experience with shelves had not been too pleasant. I could not find what I was looking for until the last shelf. That had been annoying.

Maybe this time, I could just ask the seller person. So I went up to him. "Do you have anything that details this village?" I needed something like that.

"You mean like a map?" So it was called a _map_? That…would detail the village?

"Yes." At least, I hoped so. The seller human went to one of the shelves and pulled out some paper. He then gave it to me. I thanked him, but the map was not the only thing I needed.

I went through the shelves, looking for books on humans, their habits, and things like that. I found a nice one after a while. It detailed human anatomy, along with some more information about them. Using this, I could learn more about humans. And figure out how to identify whether a human was male or female.

I also found a book on chakra. It seemed interesting, so I decided to buy that too. And maybe tell Naruto about it. I could not find a book on the Kyuubi, though. I looked in the history books, but they either did not mention the Kyuubi, or claimed the Fourth Hokage killed the Kyuubi. So I still did not know the state of the Kyuubi. Maybe wrinkly human knew about it?

The only problem about asking wrinkly human was that he put the village first. If the Fourth Hokage had indeed killed the Kyuubi, however unlikely it seemed, asking wrinkly human would be a bad idea. Wrinkly human would ask me why I wanted to know, and the answer would have to be along the lines of "The Kyuubi cannot be killed." Then he would want to know how I knew that, and the answer would be "We come from the same place." If the Fourth Hokage had killed the Kyuubi, then it would have been for a reason, and me coming from the same place…would mean that I was a threat in the same way Kyuubi was. The Kyuubi had attacked this village. I did not know why, but wrinkly human could think that I would do the same thing.

So asking wrinkly human could possibly mean me being killed. Especially if these humans knew how to kill the tailed beasts.

Even if the Fourth Hokage did_ not_ kill the Kyuubi, apparently s_omething _had happen to him. Whatever happened to him, I did not want it to happen to me.

As I was thinking all of this, I bought the books from the seller person. Using the money was a little bit confusing, but the numbers on the money helped. All I had to do was add up the numbers on the bills and made sure it equaled the amount the seller told me.

I left the bookstore. I would have to walk back to Naruto's apartment. I could not haul these books home in my phoenix form without my talons tearing them up.

I decided to look at the map. So I opened it up. There were lines all over, but there was also something called a "legend box" which told me the lines on the map were roads. I read the directions that came along with it on how to read the map. It was not too complicated. Well, actually…it was. But I figured it out, after mulling about it for about an hour.

But once I figured it out, I could locate Naruto's apartment since I remembered the street in front of it. The map really was useful! So I folded it back up…well, not very well, but I managed.

Then I walked in the direction the map told me too. There were some humans on the street, but they all seemed to be busy. And I soon came upon Naruto's apartment. It worked! The map does work! I would have to study it more, and then I would know my way around this village more. Also, on the top of the map had been this village's name, Konohagakure. I had not known that before. Now I did…but I should have asked before. Oh well.

I went back into the apartment. Naruto was in there also. He seemed to be practicing a jutsu that the academy had been teaching. It was a technique called Clone Jutsu. It was supposed to create intangible copies of the user.

Naruto had a problem with it though. Whenever he tried to use it…only a dead looking clone would appear. That was not supposed to happen.

"Naruto…"

"Ahh! It won't come out right!" He had a strange look on his face. Disappointment? I was quite good at reading Naruto's expressions by now, and I was sure that his face showed disappointment.

"I am sure it will come out right if you practice." There was something strange about this, though. He could only make one clone. Yes, in the class, since everyone had just learned it, everyone had some trouble with it…but Naruto's, in particular were…exceptional.

"But I've been practicing!" Yes, he had been.

"Maybe I could try? If I try, I might be able to know what is wrong with yours."

"Okay. That might work!"

So I did. "Clone Jutsu." I followed all the directions that the academy gave. I had listened, and knew everything that Naruto did, after all. But…

My clone…there was only one…looked dead. It looked _dead_! My clone looked dead…In fact, I think it _was_ dead…I was really disappointed…

"Um…never mind. I cannot do it either." We both could not do it? So, maybe most of Naruto's class could not do it either at the moment, but whenever someone managed to, it did not look dead.

Naruto looked a little disappointed. Oh well…

Maybe the book on chakra might say something about this? I hoped that it would.

I could also try again. So I did. But every time…it would not come out…well. It continued to look…dead. Naruto's also. Why was that? I would have to figure it out.

And as for Naruto…how old was he now? He had never told me his birthday. I would have to ask. Birthdays for humans were important, right? Since they had such a limited amount of birthdays, it would be important. "Naruto, you are seven, right? So when do you turn eight?"

"My birthday's on October tenth!" October tenth? Wait…that was the day that the Kyuubi supposingly died. I had heard that the Fourth Hokage killed him because the Kyuubi had attacked this village. But on the same day that Naruto was born? What coincidences. "What's yours on?"

My birthday? "Oh, it is on…" I did the conversion from Makai's calendar to Naruto's. "June sixteenth, but it will probably change in the next four hundred years or so." When I died and came back to life it would change.

"Wow! Your birthday can change?" Funny human. His birthday would never change.

"No. Naruto, your birthday will never change. Mine can though."

"How?" He really did know nothing about phoenixes.

"Read more about phoenixes. Then you will find out." Maybe now he would read more? He certainly did need to.

So, we had been in Naruto's academy for a while. What would come after this?

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><p>Author's note: So, this chapter is finished. Next chapter: Naruto fails the academy graduation for the first time. Akarui can use chakra, as you can probably see. He could not make a clone, because he has too much chakra, the same reason as Naruto. In my story, anyway. So the Kyuubi is partially responsible for Naruto's chakra, and Akarui came from the same place as the Kyuubi did. So, it would make sense that he has the same problem Naruto does.<p>

Oh and I hope the explanation about why Akarui could not talk to the Hokage about the Kyuubi makes sense. He will find out the same time Naruto does.

To my reviewers: Thanks so much. Much thanks to you my reviewers! Even if I do not thank you individually, thanks so much anyway. And once again…if you are reading this…please review.


	13. Chapter 12: Birthdays and Failures

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 12: Birthdays and Failures<p>

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><p>Many days passed, it had been a long time since I had first met Naruto and October soon came around.<p>

Naruto's birthday was on October tenth. So it was actually coming up soon. What do humans do on their birthday, anyway? I really did not know.

Where I came from, birthdays were not that important. What was one more year to us? Or even a hundred years?

But for humans, it was probably a different matter. Humans were mortal, having a very limited lifespan and all. So birthdays were probably important.

Since his birthday was important, I should get him something. What would Naruto like that I could afford to buy? Maybe a jutsu scroll or something? That would work. I had seen some in the bookstore.

Speaking of the bookstore, I had read the book on humans and the one on chakra, also. I could now tell the difference between a male and a female. At least, I was sure I could…I could make some mistakes though.

The book on chakra had been informative, even giving some chakra control exercises. It did not tell me what was wrong with Naruto's and my own clones, however. It did say chakra control was essential for a good ninja. Maybe I should tell Naruto about it?

The book also detailed something about elemental affinities. To find out your own affinity, you needed to buy some special paper.

Maybe I should get that for his birthday? Or should I just get him a book? Choosing presents was hard.

If I got him a scroll…I would need to see what elemental affinity he was first, also. Could I even afford that? I still had a fair amount of money…but if I kept using it, it would run out.

I could buy him some weapons…those were expensive, but he could use them. He needed some better ones anyway.

Since he needed some good weapons…weapons first. I would buy him some.

On that note…what was I going to do for his _next_ birthday? I would not have any money by that time. I would need to talk to wrinkly human and see if there was anything I could do to make some money.

Anyway, since I needed to but some weapons as a present to Naruto, I decided to do that while Naruto was in the academy. Today was supposed to be all Taijutsu training anyway. So I could skip that.

So I told Naruto that I needed to do something while he was in school. After that, he left to go to the academy…without me.

I shifted into human form and then headed to one of the weapon stores that I had seen on one of my trips. It seemed like a good place to buy weapons.

When I entered the seller person said "hi" to me. I greeted her (yes, I am sure it was a female…I think). There were many types of weapons in the store, which were kept on racks and shelves.

What would Naruto need? He was learning how to use kunai (apparently, those were the black throwing knives) and shuriken (black star shaped…things). The store had those. It also had things called swords and daggers. And many unnamed things…Sharp things…

…On second thought, it seemed to be too dangerous to get Naruto some of these at this point. He was only turning eight, which was a _miniscule_ age. He probably would not need these until later. One of his later birthdays maybe.

So…weapons would not work. I left the store. What should I get him? A book? Lots of ramen? The ramen would work, but he was fully capable of buying that himself.

A book on some non-affinity jutsus might work. He did not need to know jutsus with an affinity anyway yet.

I headed to the bookstore. Inside the bookstore was a seller person. He greeted me. I responded in kind and headed to the ninja scroll section.

Now I would have to find one. After perusing the scrolls, I finally found one that seemed to be good for Naruto. He would have to learn it though.

I also decided that I could check other sections of the bookstore. I was already here, so why not?

I went into the fiction section. This was the section where people made things up and wrote it down, apparently. Half the books I looked at in this section could not even be remotely true.

It was in this section that I came across an interesting book. _The Legend of the Gutsy Ninja._ There was only one copy in the store that I could see. It had been behind some other books that I shifted through. The main character had the same name as Naruto.

It was an interesting book, and I decided to buy the book for myself. It could be an interesting read when I was bored and in my human form.

I purchased the scroll and my book. So, now I had Naruto's birthday present. It was Naruto's birthday tomorrow, so I had to keep the scroll hidden.

When I reached Naruto's apartment, he still was not there. That was expected, the academy had not ended yet.

I decided to hide the scroll in one of the cabinets. Naruto had nothing in that cabinet, so it would work. Then I started to read the book I got for myself, choosing to sit down on the chair in the kitchen.

It was indeed an interesting book. The main character, also named Naruto…never gave up and wanted to break some "curse." Which was apparently the cycle of violence. Or something like that. Overall, quite a good read. I decided to keep the book, it would not make a bad re-read if I was ever bored and had nothing to do.

By the time I finished the book, it was almost time for Naruto to come back. Perhaps I should share this book with Naruto? He would like it. The main character reminded me of Naruto. So both Narutos reminded me of each other.

Soon Naruto got to the apartment. He was happy to see me again, it seemed.

Then he started to speak again. "What are you reading, Akarui?" Oh, I was still holding the book.

"This? Oh, it is a book about someone named Naruto. Sound familiar?"

"It's about me?" He _would _come to that conclusion.

"No, the main character has the same name as you." Funny Naruto. The book was older than him, I believe, so how could it be about him? There were some similarities, though.

Maybe he would want to read it? "Do you want to read it?"

"Um…maybe later!" He did not like to read…it was actually a little sad.

I nodded (a habit I picked up from Naruto), and then said, "You should read it sometime, it is not that bad. The main character reminds me of you."

"Really? Fine, I'll read it!" Or at least he would try to. Could Naruto actually finish it?

I handed the book to him. He started to read it. That was good…I had never seen Naruto actually read a book, and I had been with him for quite a while now.

After a while, I realized it was dinnertime. "Naruto, time to eat."

No answer…wait, no answer? Naruto always came running to eat when it was dinnertime. He must be really engrossed in the book. I should get him a copy.

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><p>The next day, it was Naruto's birthday. So, I woke him up by yelling the word "ramen" in his ear. That <em>always<em> worked. He jumped up and I wished him a "Happy Birthday." I also gave him the scroll, after retrieving it from the cabinet.

He had been really happy. I think he had been crying again. From joy. I was just happy that he liked the present.

Later that day, wrinkly human also came over. He gave Naruto a present also. It was some something that covered the eyes. Wrinkly human called it _goggles._ He had also bought a round food of some sort, a _cake_, it was called.

When I tried to eat it in my phoenix form, my beak got…cemented together…by the thing called _frosting_. It was annoying trying to get the frosting off.

After that, I used my human form (after wrinkly human left). It was much cleaner that way. The cake was actually quite good. It was really sweet, but I liked it anyway.

Naruto was really happy to get all the presents. He had said that this had been the best day in his life. If this had been the best day in his life…what had happened on all his past birthdays?

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><p>After Naruto's birthday, the days went on. It was now over a year since I had first met Naruto.<p>

One day, Iruka human said, "The graduation exams have come again. Anyone who thinks they can become a genin can try and take the test."

Of course, Naruto was never one to back down from a challenge. He had jumped up, signed up for the test, and claimed that he would pass. He wanted to become a ninja, and the genin rank, while the lowest rank, still counted as a ninja.

I, though, was not sure that he could pass. He had only been in the academy for a year, and I had heard the normal time to become a genin was at age twelve. Naruto was not ready. But he was determined.

Several days after that announcement, Naruto took the test. As I had expected, he had failed.

Naruto, was understandably upset. "Why didn't I pass?" was a question that was frequently asked to me. He had taken it hard.

"You should not worry about failing. You have only been in the academy for one year. _One year._ None of your classmates who took it passed either. You just are not ready yet."

"Then, when will I be ready?"

"You will be ready when you are ready to do what you have to do as a ninja. What is it that you want to do as a ninja?"

"I want to become Hokage, and make people acknowledge me! Then I could protect all those close to me!" Those close to him numbered very few, so I believed he valued them even more…

"Then you will become a ninja when you are ready to protect those close to you." Yes, and Naruto would always fulfill his goals. He was too determined to fail. This had been only his first try to succeed and he had failed…but that would not be able to keep him down for long.

"I will?"

"Yes, you will." He would too. Naruto…had drive, determination. He had enough to succeed in anything.

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><p>After his first failure in the graduation exam, Naruto quickly went back to his normal self again. But, I do not think he was quite the same. He played more pranks, and I had to talk him out of some of his more outrageous ones. Well, I guessed that he probably wanted some more attention.<p>

The problem was…the attention he wanted and the attention he was getting through the pranks was not the same thing.

But he had also poured more effort into trying to become better. He had read the scroll on jutsus that I had given him and tried to learn them. He succeeded in learning them, seemingly through effort alone. I was surprised. Yes, I had chosen the scroll because I thought it was his level. I thought he would be able to learn it. And he had.

But it was the speed in which he learned that surprised me. The scroll had advised that it would take _weeks _per jutsu for an academy student. Naruto had learned the jutsus…each in one week.

Naruto was certainly better than anyone gave him credit for. When I tried to learn the jutsus, just to see if I could, I still took longer than him. Naruto…was something else.

Everyone was seriously underestimating him. He only did not do well in the academy because of the written tests there. He also lacked a good Taijutsu style. He had trouble with the ones in the academy, but when it came to jutsus, he was quite good. But he still could not do the Clone Jutsu. For that matter, neither could I. I still did not know why.

Time passed like this for a while, over half a year. Naruto was still in the academy.

And it was one day while I had been flying over the village that I saw the massacre of the clan called Uchiha.

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><p>Author's note: No, this will <em>not <em>be a Super! Naruto fic. Akarui was bound to have some influence, so this is just his influence. This chapter seemed sorta short, but oh well.

Ok, I am seriously starting to speed up from here. I am a little bored with writing Naruto's childhood. I mean, I already wrote 13 chapters, most with Naruto still being a kid at the time. So probably in the next two or three chapters, he will reach the time when the manga starts.

To my reviewers: Thank you so, so much! I love all the reviews! They are really, really nice! Please, keep reviewing! I would love that! And also, if you are reading this…please leave your opinion on this story!


	14. Chapter 13: Massacre and the Aftermath

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 13: Massacre and the Aftermath<p>

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><p>I had just been flying over the village when I saw the massacre. I had not noticed anything amiss, until I began seeing dead bodies on the streets of the Uchiha section of the village.<p>

At the time, I had not known that it was the Uchiha clan that was killed. I learned that later.

Wondering what was going on, I adjusted my flight and flew down into the street where I saw the dead humans. On closer inspection, one of the humans was indeed dead, along with all the humans on the street. It was not a…pleasant sight.

Many, if not all, of these humans had been ninja. Whoever had killed them must have been someone quite powerful. Assuming it was another human, and not a _something._

Should I leave and tell the wrinkly human about this? This whole street was littered with bodies. It was likely the houses were also. This was not just a mass killing…it was a massacre.

As I was wondering what to do, I heard footsteps approaching. I decided to hide. It could be the killer of all these humans.

It was not. It was a child human, dark-haired and about the same age as Naruto. Judging by the symbol on the child's back, he was from the same clan as the…humans who had been killed. This child would…die also.

I was now a little concerned for the child. What can I say? I have always cared for children. I flew to the child. "You, human child! Leave now!" I actually spoke to the human, so he had better listen to me.

The child was too shocked, I think at the sight of his dead…clansmen, to listen. I do not think he even registered me as strange. He just shook his head and started to run into the street and into one of the houses. This child was going to get killed!

"Wait! You stupid child!" Was he _trying_ to get killed? Could he not see that his clansmen had been _killed_?

I flew after him. He ran to one of the doors and yelled for his parents. Someone from inside yelled at him…his name was _Sasuke_…to not go in.

He opened the door anyway. And he went in.

What was I to do at this point? It was one thing to reveal myself to a traumatized child, and another to reveal myself to another human who had the ability to kill many humans. I did not know. Should I reveal myself to help this child? I was taught _survival first_. This counted as a dangerous situation.

I was confused. The killer was obviously dangerous. I did not know what he or she might be capable of. But the dark-haired child…But, this was a different case from Naruto. Naruto's pursuers were not this dangerous. What should I do? My own logic dictated that I avoid this situation. But…the child…

…I had taken too long in my thoughts. And I could not and did not hear what had happened inside. The next thing I knew, the child had run outside, with another person stopping him by stepping in front of him.

For now, I would watch. The child was still alive, so perhaps the killer (I presumed it was the other person) did not want him dead. I hid and just listened to their conversation.

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><p>The killer of the humans…had been the child's brother. That meant...he had killed his own <em>family<em>. The clan had been a clan of ninjas. Apparently, they had a doujutsu. The older…brother of the child had said something about the Mangekyou Sharigan. I did not know what that was.

The killer had spared his younger brother…because it apparently was worthless to kill him. He wanted…Sasuke to come before him when he had the same eyes as him. Whatever that meant, I did not know. Then the child fell unconscious. The killer human left after that. I deemed it best not to follow.

Exactly what had happened? One person…had killed his entire clan…but left his brother alive. The child's mental health…would definitely be affected by this. Speaking of the child, I wonder if he would remember me talking to him. It was possible…this night would probably be ingrained in his memory. I would have to avoid being seen by this child again. I actually think…this child might have been in Naruto's class, but I was not sure.

Anyway, I would have to get help for this child. He needed it.

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><p>I got help for the child. I had flown through wrinkly human's window and told him about the child...and the massacre. He was very…worried. Was he worried about the massacre, the child…or the fact that I had seen a part of it? I could not tell.<p>

The child was picked up, and then he got taken to the building called the_ hospital_. I guessed that it was a place where they took the injured.

I would not tell Naruto about this. Naruto…did not need to know.

After that night, I did not know what to think of humans. Humans were capable of killing their own families; humans were capable of whole massacres. Humans were…not at all what I expected. They were such an unexplainable species.

I would remember this night for a long time to come. It was certainly not the first time I had seen death on such a scale…but coming from humans…

Yes, I would remember this night for a long time to come.

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><p>After that disturbing night, life just continued…without most of the Uchiha Clan. Naruto's classmates spoke of it a little…but I do not think Naruto understood exactly what had happened.<p>

I never did tell him that I witnessed some of it. I did not need to tell him. He did not need to know. It would be better that way.

The days passed quickly. I learned more about humans, attending the academy with Naruto. I still did not know the names of many objects…but I was beginning to learn.

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><p>Naruto's birthday soon came again. And again. He was ten now. I had been in this world for a total of almost three years. Three years was not really a long time to me. But it was a long time for Naruto. He had grown. Quite a lot. Unfortunately…he did not grow in maturity. He played more pranks…such as the one involving the classroom and some paint.<p>

Still, Naruto was certainly a friend of mine. I knew that I cared for him quite a bit.

During the three year period, I had not talked to many humans in my real form…except to Naruto and the wrinkly human. I had my own human form, but I did not like to use it if I did not have to.

So anyway, it was soon after Naruto's tenth birthday that Iruka human told us the option to take the graduation exams had come again.

Of course, Naruto jumped for the chance to take it. He was certainly more prepared. But I was worried for him. He still could not do the Clone Jutsu. If the test involved that…he would fail.

Naruto would not take the failure well. He had already failed once. To fail twice…

So during the days before the test, Naruto wanted to train. I agreed to help him. Then he asked me something quite odd.

"Akarui, could you help me with target practice?"

"Target practice? If you wish, I can help you." Why not? It would help out Naruto.

"Yay! So you can be the target!"

"If you want." Wait…_what_? Me, the target? No, I do not want to be the target! "Wait! Wait! Before you throw that shuriken, I am not going to be the target!"

"Aww, but it'll be good practice!"

"No! I refuse! If you do that…" What should I say? "I will burn all your orange jumpsuits!"

"Fine…I was just joking…" He had better have been joking…

Now I felt a little bad. "I will help you in human form…I just will not be your target."

"Yay!"

* * *

><p>I decided to accompany him to the test. A support of some kind, I supposed it could be called.<p>

During the test, he…failed the written portion. But on the weapons portion, he did quite well. I had helped him to practice, so he did well. The problem was the Ninjutsu portion.

He could not do the Clone Jutsu. Even though I had tried to find out why for over two years, I still could not figure it out.

Because of that…he failed a second time.

"Why did I fail a second time?" He was asking this of me. I would have to answer.

"Perhaps you are not quite ready to protect those close to you. You will pass when you are strong enough to protect those. So do not worry."

"But…"

"You will pass the next time. You will. I believe in you."

"I will pass the next time! Believe it!"

He would, too. All I had to do was solve that pesky Clone Jutsu problem. And help him prepare for the written portion also.

* * *

><p>So, to help him, I decided that I would spend some time in the library. Depending on the librarian, Naruto sometimes had a hard time getting in.<p>

I also still did not know why Naruto was hated in his village. It was still a mystery.

So I went to the library and checked out some books on chakra…and a book called a _dictionary_. The dictionary was a book with definitions of words! It was quite amazing really. With this book, I could know the names of everything! I would have to buy a copy.

The only problem was…I had _no _money left. I spent it all on Naruto's last two birthday presents.

So for now…I would have to use the libraries. I also needed a calligraphy set…to practice my handwriting in my human form. I was sure being able to write in my human form would be useful later.

Oh well, when I had more money. What jobs could I do? Need to talk to wrinkly human about that.

When I looked in the books…I just saw more chakra exercises. I already knew about those…but I had forgotten about them. I decided to tell Naruto about them. Who knows? They could help.

When I went back to the apartment, still in my human form, I decided to go and drink something. But when I checked the refrigerator…the milk was expired. _Again_.

I refused to drink _expired_ milk. Yet Naruto had no problem with it. Why was that?

I decided to go and buy some good milk. So I took the expired milk and…what was I supposed to do with this?

Oh, I know! Naruto always poured water into the pots that hold his plants. I could pour the expired milk in, right? They were both liquids. So what if the milk was white.

I dumped the almost full carton of expired milk into one of the pots…Was the milk supposed to be leaking out the sides of the pot? Oh…whatever.

After that, I took some money from Naruto's Gama-chan demon frog purse. (I learned that it was a purse a while ago, and I was using this money for groceries…not stealing it.) So I headed out to the grocery store place.

I went to the milk section and bought a carton of milk. After I exited the store with it, I went back to Naruto's apartment.

He was at his apartment by now. Then he said, "Akarui…why is there milk leaking out of one of the pots?"

"Oh, I watered…wait, milked it."

He got a funny expression on his face. I had not seen that one before. "You don't milk plants."

"You do not? Oh, sorry! But milk and water are both liquids…"

Naruto just shook his head. I just put the new milk in the refrigerator.

"Oh, by the way, I read about some chakra exercises. If you want, you can try them. They are supposed to help with your chakra control, which then helps with your jutsus."

"Really? Can I see?" Naruto seemed interested. That was good.

"In there." I pointed towards the books. He went over there and started to read them.

He would be ready for the next graduation exam, indeed.

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><p>Author's note: Sorry if I spanned several years…if I had kept going at the rate I was…I would have gone on for another 10 chapters…<p>

And I want to get to Team 7 already. Anyway, thanks so much to my reviewers!


	15. Chapter 14: The Third Time

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 14: The Third Time<p>

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><p>So, Naruto's eleventh birthday was coming up…and I was…what was the human term? Right, <em>broke.<em> I did not have any money left.

So, I decided that before I talked to wrinkly human, I should walk around the village and see if there was anything that I could do. The only problem was…I knew nothing about human jobs and occupations.

But I could still try.

So one day, after Naruto and I were finished with the academy for the day, I went out without him. I had offered to stay at the apartment if he wanted some company, but he said he would be training on that Clone Jutsu.

So, I was just walking around the village. But…I could not find anything, so I would have to go and talk to the wrinkly human.

So, I took my phoenix form when I was out of view of the humans on the street and then I flew through wrinkly human's window. He was just sitting on his desk doing the paperwork. Every time I saw him, he was doing paperwork. I felt bad for him. If I was him, I would burn it _all_.

"Akarui-san, what are you doing here?"

"I need some money, so is there anything I can do for it? I spent it all on Naruto's presents."

"Well, no, not if you're a bird."

"Oh…" Should I tell him about my human form? What would he think? I was not quite sure what his reaction would be. Best for him not to know for now.

He sighed. "Well, I can help you. Since I am already providing money for Naruto, I could provide some for you also. But, I will stop providing it when Naruto graduates and is able to make money on his own through missions."

"Really? Thank you, wrinkly human!" Yes, do not get on the bad side of a phoenix. Smart human. I would remember the favors.

He sighed again. "And please stop calling me that."

"Of course, I can do that, wrinkly human." I just wanted to bother him. He just sighed again. He must be getting old. Poor human.

Money problem solved! At least until Naruto graduated. I would figure that our later. I honestly did not want to work…for these humans. Seems…a bit…insulting to me, I guessed. Not that humans were that bad…but I still had my pride.

So, with that solved, I flew back to Naruto's apartment. I guessed that my money would get sent to me, just like Naruto's.

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><p>His birthday came again. He was now eleven. The money had come too. So I bought him a nice present.<p>

Also, his progress on the chakra control exercise of climbing the wall had been quite amazing. He could now do it without a problem. He had actually completed it the day after I gave the exercise to him, so it had been a while ago that he finished it.

I gave him some other exercises. He learned those also. When I tried one of them…I just fell into the water. I hate water…Never doing that again. I do not mind some water, but _falling completely_ into water is different.

I decided not to do that particular exercise. Besides, I was not doing it to train, just to learn how. So it was not training to me.

Naruto only had a year to go before the next genin exam. I hoped that he would do well. He should be able to pass….if not for that Clone Jutsu. Which I could still not solve the problem with.

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><p>The year passed quickly for me. I had bought a calligraphy set and with the money I got, and I practiced my handwriting in my human form. It was…<em>terrible<em>. I could not manipulate the stupid brush at all. So all my writing looked…really bad. And so…I burned them. The papers, not the brush. I could not even read it…it looked more like a really bad drawing. Hands are useful…but strange and hard to use.

But by the time Naruto was going to take the test again (he was now twelve), I actually got to the point where my writing in human form was legible. Mostly. My writing in my real form was still much better.

I had also bought him a nice set of weapons and scrolls for his birthday, to show my hopes that he would pass.

Anyway, so before the test, Naruto practiced a while. Then he decided to play another prank. He did not tell me about it. I think he was worried that I would stop him.

It was obvious that he was going to play a prank though. He had bought paint. _Paint_. We did not need paint, so it was obviously for one of his pranks. He still wanted some attention, it seemed.

This would be interesting. I had nothing against his pranks, but sometimes it went overboard. I believe that it was going to be one of those times.

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><p>It was indeed one of those times. He painted the faces on the mountain overlooking Konohagakure. <em>Painted them<em>. I mean, they were important right? Wrinkly human's face was up there…and wrinkly human was important, being a Hokage and all.

So the adult humans were yelling at him to stop. Being the strange human that he was, Naruto just responded by saying he was incredible to be able to paint the mountains. At this point, I was just flying next to Naruto. I_ had_ been trying to stop him. But then I decided that it did not matter. I did not really care for faces on mountains. Besides, it was a little amusing to see the humans yell _up _at Naruto. And it was not every day that Naruto was hanging in the air.

Then Iruka human came. Oh…_that _human had a loud voice. He yelled at Naruto to get down.

Eventually, they got Naruto down. Then Iruka human tied him up. It was not the first time, but hopefully it would be the last, what with the test coming up again and all.

Then he told the class to do the Henge Jutsu. Naruto was good at this one. The thing was…he liked to transform into a human female that lacked all the clothes. This always had the most amusing effect on human males. I did not understand why exactly it had the strange effect, but it _was _amusing.

Naruto's classmates were mad at Naruto, but he ignored them. I think he got the "ignore certain humans" from me…I hoped he did not. He could not go around ignoring humans all the time.

So Iruka human told him to transform into him (the _him_ being Iruka human).

I knew Naruto would not. He would do the Sexy Jutsu…

True to my prediction, that is what he did. After that came the amusing reaction from Iruka human. Iruka human flew backwards about ten feet, with blood spurting out of his…nose. It was really strange, but amusing anyhow. But….why do humans do that, anyway? Strange humans.

Iruka, once he recovered (it took a while), then yelled at Naruto.

I told Naruto not to worry, after all he _had _transformed. Just not into Iruka human.

Afterwards, Naruto had to clean the mountains. Iruka human was supervising. I was trying to help, but whenever I tried to pick up the cloth with my talons, it ripped. I gave up. I settled for just picking at Naruto's hair.

His head was actually quite comfortable, even if his hair did seem spiky. Iruka human did not spare me a glance. He was used to me by now.

Iruka human told Naruto he could not leave until everything was back to normal. Naruto said he did not care.

I jumped back onto his shoulder. "We can go and eat some ramen later." At this, Naruto just nodded. He must be upset. Iruka human did not hear me, of course.

Then I believe that Iruka human felt bad, because then he told Naruto he would take him out to ramen later. That was what I wanted to do. Would I be able to go?

At least Iruka human did not dislike Naruto. He was a little harsh, but he did not hate Naruto.

Naruto said "yes", and then he said something that surprised me. "Can I bring Akarui?" He remembered me. That was nice of him.

"Akarui?" Right, Iruka human did not know who I was.

"Yeah! Akarui! He's my friend!" I chirped and jumped onto Iruka human's shoulder. It was not nearly as comfortable as Naruto's. What with the vest and all.

"That's Akarui!" I jumped up and down on Iruka human's shoulder. And immediately regretted it. Those vests were _hard_.

"Oh, so that's the bird's name?" I was annoyed…I was not just a bird!

"Yeah! It is!" As Naruto said that, I jumped back onto Naruto's shoulder. Much more comfortable. And I had nothing against the orange jumpsuit. Orange was a nice, bright color. Not as nice as gold, scarlet, and silver, but nice anyway. And it was comfortable.

So after this, Iruka human did as he promised and took Naruto out to ramen. I, as usual, just took some of the noodles. Ramen was strange, but it was not that bad.

I was not listening to Iruka human and Naruto's conversation until I heard the words "fox demon" come from Naruto. The Kyuubi, something I still have not been able to figure out. I had not felt the Kyuubi's presence in the almost five years I had been here. Where _was _he? By now…I was a little worried. Not for the Kyuubi, but I was worried about what happened to it. The same thing could happen to me.

Because I was thinking about that, I did not hear the rest of Iruka human and Naruto's conversation. But some more_ human_ contact was good for Naruto. I was not human, and he did not have much human friends…

Tomorrow would be Naruto's graduation exam to become a genin. This would be his third time taking it. I hoped that it would be his last.

* * *

><p>Today was Naruto's exam. I resolved to accompany him like I usually did. Naruto rushed to the academy.<p>

The only thing was…when Naruto got to the academy, Iruka human announced that the graduation test would be…the _Clone Jutsu._ I still had not been able to figure that out! I could not, even though I had read many books on chakra. Naruto…could not do the Clone Jutsu. It was always the Clone Jutsu! Why was that?

Ask him about any other jutsu…he would do fine then. But they had to ask for the Clone Jutsu…

Naruto, with me on his shoulder, went into the next room. When he performed it…it failed. The other human, Mizuki human told Iruka human they should still pass him. But Iruka human refused…

Naruto had failed.

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><p>Naruto went to the swing in front of the academy. I was trying to make him feel better, but my efforts at picking at his hair did not seem to help. I did not know what to say at all to Naruto.<p>

The parents of the other children congratulated them…Naruto had no congratulations. The parents were saying that it was a good thing that Naruto had not passed.

How dare they judge…who were they to judge whether it was a good thing or a bad thing for Naruto to pass or not? They had no right to judge. They did not know Naruto, so why should they judge? Humans. Of course.

I really wanted to go over there and set their hair on fire, but I saw wrinkly human in the crowd.

Naruto soon left the swing. I saw the Mizuki human follow. Mizuki human than approached Naruto and began to speak to him. I listened. He was trying to explain the Iruka human.

Then he told Naruto…that he would pass the graduation exam if he took a certain scroll from wrinkly human's house. _What_? Stealing from a _Hokage's_ house…to pass an exam? That was…unheard of. I certainly had never heard of that.

But who was I to take away Naruto's hope? If there was a chance that Naruto could pass, he should take it.

That night, Naruto took the scroll from wrinkly human by using that Sexy Jutsu of his. Naruto then ran to the forest. I was with him, of course. He started to read the scroll.

"Naruto, it starts with something called Shadow Clone Jutsu. If you could learn it, you would pass the test, right?"

"That's right! I'll learn it. Believe it!" Naruto began practicing. He would get it soon.

After a while Iruka human came. He had chased after Naruto because Naruto had stolen the scroll. Naruto told him that since he learned "it" he would be able to graduate. But before Naruto could show him, Mizuki human came…and attacked.

Mizuki human…wanted the scroll! He had been using Naruto. How dare the human! Iruka human told him not to give Mizuki human the scroll…but then Mizuki human began to tell the tale of the fox demon of twelve years ago.

"The rule is that nobody is allowed to talk about is the fact that _you_ are the _Kyuubi_!"

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><p>Author's note: Ok, so this was mostly canonical. It will go farther from the story line later. So now Akarui learns about the Kyuubi! What is going to happen? And I did not give Akarui a job because it would not fit into the story too well…<p>

So, thanks to all my reviewers! Much, much, thanks! Really! I got over 50 reviews! It does not sound like a lot…but it's a lot to me!


	16. Chapter 15: The Kyuubi

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 15: The Kyuubi<p>

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><p><em>What <em>did that Mizuki human _say_? _Naruto_ was the _Kyuubi_? _What?_

_Impossible_. That was impossible! Kyuubi was the nine-tailed fox. Naruto was without any doubt…a human. Naruto could not be the Kyuubi.

So what was that Mizuki human saying? Or rather…why was he saying that?

I was confused. But Naruto was shocked. "What do you mean?" He yelled this…Did _he_ really believe that? Yes…he did. It would explain many things about why the villagers hated Naruto so much.

Mizuki human spoke, "It means that you are the demon that attacked the village and killed Iruka's parents!"

No…Naruto would not do that. The Kyuubi might have…but Naruto? No. My decision was final. Naruto was _not_ the Kyuubi. I do not know what happened to Kyuubi…but Naruto was _not _the fox. It was obvious. But to none but me, apparently. Still...I would talk to the wrinkly human about this.

"Naruto! Naruto!" I think I managed to get past his shocked state. "You are _not_ the Kyuubi! I have been with you for almost five years…and you are certainly not the Kyuubi!" That was most definite.

"I'm not?" He was still shocked…dazed. "But…but…what he said…"

"Do you think you are the Kyuubi? You have never acted like you were. You do not act like a demon. You are Naruto…who else could you be?"

He just looked confused. Please, use the brain I am sure you have somewhere Naruto. He needed to understand.

That Mizuki human, who I had decided that I hated, continued. "You have been sealed up by the Hokage you admired and you have been lied to by everyone! Everyone hates you! Iruka is the same! Nobody will ever love you!" Mizuki human was so engrossed in his hatred for Naruto…but he had not heard me talking to Naruto. Naruto had a chance to get out of this.

And at his words, I bristled and puffed up in anger. No one saw Naruto at all. Those stupid humans.

"Naruto…I care. Wrinkly human cares. And if Iruka hated you…he would never have bought you ramen. There are those who do love you, so you better remember that!"

Mizuki had been talking while I had been talking. But Naruto had been listening to me. Then I could see the large shuriken that Mizuki had thrown at us. It was rushing toward us. "Naruto! The shuriken!" If Naruto could not react in time…then I would have to do something.

Then the Iruka human appeared…and took the shuriken. To his back. Naruto was surprised. I was too. Iruka human was indeed something else. He cared.

"Why?" Really, Naruto? You need to ask? Iruka human explained. He knew what Naruto felt like. He understood.

"You're not the demon fox. You're a member of Konoha. You're Uzumaki Naruto!" Iruka human, when he said that…did he guess what effect it would have on Naruto? Naruto had _needed_ to hear that. He needed someone to care.

I flew close to Naruto's ear. "You see, Iruka human cares. _I_ care. Now…why not show your new skills to Mizuki human, to repay the Iruka human?"

Naruto got a determined look on his face. My words had an effect after all. "Yeah, I will!" He stood up and turned to Mizuki human. "If you touch Iruka-sensei, I'll kill you!"

"As if you could even touch me!" Poor Mizuki human. He did not know what he just landed himself into.

He put together his hands in the seal that he had been practicing. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Hundreds of Narutos appeared. Hundreds! Impressive. And they were solid.

"Poor Mizuki human will not survive." Naruto heard me. And then he spoke again.

"What's wrong? I thought you said I wouldn't be able to touch you? Well, I'll start then."

All the clones ran at Mizuki human. That was what Naruto had been practicing. He could not do the Clone Jutsu, but the Shadow Clone Jutsu was so much better. Physical clones…could do damage.

I had not needed to help Naruto at all. He had not needed it. He had handled the battle himself just fine. Still…I wanted to do something. So I flew to Mizuki human…who was not looking to good. I landed next to his head. Since Naruto had…so effectively…beaten him up, as humans put it, I just decided to light his hair on fire.

I actually liked to do that. Just a little. It was fun to watch. And the Mizuki human deserved it. So I did. His hair made a nice bonfire. All the nice colors…

Then Naruto dispersed all his clones. Iruka human looked at the beaten and…now bald, slightly burned Mizuki human. I think he had a proud look on his face. Though I think he was also wondering where did all Mizuki human's hair went and why he was slightly burned.

I landed back onto Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto…I think you went too far." I said this quietly; so as to not draw Iruka human's attention to myself.

"Hey! Akarui, you lit his hair on fire!" Well…yes. I did. I just chirped happily in reply.

The Iruka human spoke. "Naruto, come over here. There's something I want to give you."

He made Naruto close his eyes. "Now you can open them." He had put the ninja headband on Naruto. So…Naruto was now a ninja. See, I knew he would pass.

Iruka human continued. "Congratulations on graduating! Let's celebrate, I'll buy you ramen!" Now Naruto had gotten his congratulations. I would congratulate him also. Naruto was really happy, I was sure of that.

After Iruka human said this, Naruto jumped at Iruka human. Normally, this would not be a problem, except that I was still on his shoulder. So I got crushed between Naruto and the Iruka human. My feathers! My poor feathers…I lost some…

"Naruto! Get off me…Now!" I shrieked this. I also figured it would be fine if Iruka human knew about me. I decided that I liked the human…and I wanted to talk to him and thank him.

"Oh…Sorry Akarui!" Naruto scrambled off of me. I puffed up in indignation. Stupid little human midget…even if he was not as midget-y as he was before.

"Naruto…your bird can talk?" Iruka human was surprised. His mouth was open.

"I am not just a bird…so stop calling me that! I have a _name_." Seriously, I did _not _like it when people knew my name…and ignored it. "Oh, and also…congratulations on passing! I told you that you would. Now…it seems you are ready." That was directed to Naruto.

"Thanks Akarui! And yeah, I'm ready! Believe it!" There was a pause. "But why did you reveal yourself to Iruka-sensei?"

I continued. "Oh, and Iruka human…thank you for believing in Naruto. It is nice to see some redeeming humans. They make up for the bad ones." I turned to Naruto. "For that. I wanted to talk to him." Then I turned back to Iruka human. "Oh, and also do not tell anyone about me. Your Hokage already knows about me."

Iruka human just nodded. He was in shock, I supposed. "Now, did you not say something to Naruto about a food called ramen? I will come also."

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><p>The next day was the registration day for Naruto. I just decided to go with Naruto for the registration. He had to get a picture taken of him. He wanted to be in a very…strange (ridiculous) pose…but I refused to take it with him if he did that. So in the end, he took an acceptable picture. But after the pictures, I left for home again.<p>

Today, I wanted to talk to the wrinkly human. He had something to explain to me…in regards to a certain midget human and a demon fox.

I waited until I knew that Naruto would not be at wrinkly human's place. Then I flew over to the Hokage tower and went through the window.

Wrinkly human was doing paperwork. Did he do nothing else? Anyway, I needed to talk to him. "Wrinkly human."

"Akarui-san? What is it that you want?"

"You need to explain something. About Naruto…and a demon fox." I wanted the answers. And I would get them.

The wrinkly human looked at me. Then he sighed. "You heard from Mizuki?"

"Yes…now explain."

"Why do you want to know?" Annoying wrinkly human. He wanted to know why I was concerned?

"It concerns Naruto, who I am quite…attached to by now." That was part of the reason…not the whole thing, but part of it.

"What do you want to know then?" asked wrinkly human.

"Why did Mizuki human call Naruto the Kyuubi?" I needed the answers. They were quite important.

And I received them.

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><p>Apparently, the day Naruto was born, the Kyuubi had attacked the village. The reason for the attack was not known. The Fourth Hokage had <em>not <em>killed the Kyuubi. Since he could not kill the demon, he had _sealed_ the fox instead. Inside Naruto. I was not allowed to tell any other humans about that. Well, the adults knew…but the children did not. Of course, I would not tell them. That was Naruto's job.

I did not know what to think. Wrinkly human had told me that Naruto was not the Kyuubi, merely the container. So Naruto was just Naruto.

I was relieved to know that. I liked Naruto the way he was.

And now…I knew what had happened to the Kyuubi. Not death…but sealed. _Sealed_. So humans had a way to defeat the demons…

Since I had not felt the presence of any of the other tailed demons…I could only guess that they had been sealed also. So these humans had a way to defeat us. A way to defeat _me_ if it was necessary. I would have to be more careful from now on. Humans were more dangerous than they let on.

But still, I would not mind staying with Naruto.

And tomorrow…Naruto would be assigned to his team. This…should indeed be interesting.

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><p>Author's note: Sorry if this is really short…this just seemed to be the best place to end this chapter.<p> 


	17. Chapter 16: Pink, Blond, Boring

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

If there is an * after a word/phrase, explanation for usage on the bottom.

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><p>Chapter 16: Pink Hair; Hyperactive Blond; Really Boring Uchiha<p>

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><p>Today, Naruto would be assigned to his genin team. This should be quite amusing. And at least Naruto would be around children his age more. Even if he and his team are children trained to…kill.<p>

Ninja humans, I supposed. At least it was not the only thing they did.

I had also been thinking about something. But I would have to talk to wrinkly human about it.

So, before Naruto was even awake, I left the apartment and flew over to the Hokage tower. I flew through wrinkly human's window. He was…predictably, doing paperwork.

"Akarui-san! Do you need something?"

"As a matter of fact, I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

"Today, Naruto is getting assigned to his team, correct? Well, I would like to help him."

Wrinkly human looked unsure. "What do you mean?"

"Help Naruto. As in…aid him in battle. There is a human, in Naruto's class, that has a nin-dog. While you should not compare me to the dog, I think you can see the parallel."

"You do?" The wrinkly human seemed surprised.

"Yes, and I have a question. Some nin-animals can talk, right?"

"Yes. So you also want to talk to the other people?"

"Yes. That can be an excuse of mine. So…would that be fine with you?"

"Of course. But our old agreement still stands, Akarui-san. You are not allowed to harm the village."

"Yes. I remember that, wrinkly human. Naruto would never attack any villagers." He would never. Naruto loved this village. I do not know why, but he does.

"Wait, Akarui-san." He hesitated. Then, "You will need this." He was holding a ninja headband*.

Then it was I who hesitated. To take it meant to be loyal to this village. To take it meant that I would defend this village. To take it meant that I was a defender, a ninja, of Konohagakure.

I was not loyal to the village. But I was loyal to my friend. And Naruto was loyal to the village. I took it. I wanted to help Naruto, so that meant receiving this headband.

And should I tell wrinkly human about my human form? No, maybe later…

"Thank you, wrinkly human." With that I left, making myself larger in order to carry it. I would ask Naruto to tie it on or something later.

Wrinkly human was a nice human. I would remember him.

Now, for Naruto to get assigned to his team. Somehow, I had a feeling that it would be disastrous…

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><p>When I got back to the apartment, Naruto was still asleep. Of course, he would be. Now, what to do with the headband? In order to wear it, I would always have to be in a larger size than what had become my normal size-my sparrow size. I would at least have to be the size of one of the smaller hawks.<p>

Would I still fit on Naruto's shoulder? I think I would be able to. And where was I supposed to wear it anyway? Did wrinkly human even think of that? Around my neck or something? That could lead to me to being strangled…though I do not think that could kill me.

Anyway, it was certainly time to wake Naruto up. For now, I could go to the academy in my sparrow size.

So I woke up Naruto. He rushed around getting ready. I would tell him about my new status as a nin…bird…later. Would it be nin-bird?

After breakfast, Naruto replaced his goggles with the headband. He was actually running a little late.

"You know that if you do not leave now…you will be late."

"Ahh!" He ran out the door. Without me, again. I had to fly over to him and land on his shoulder.

When he made it to the academy, some of the other humans asked him what he was doing there. It was obvious he graduated…but apparently, they did not think of that.

Then, a human wearing…a very strange outfit came in. She was one of Naruto's classmates…and she had pink hair. So strange…

This girl Naruto liked. Sakura human. As in he saw her as a potential mate. But…the human girl did not view him in the same way. The girl was also quite…violent. I think that is a trend among human females.

From what I could see…human females were quite violent. Sometimes, when I was walking around town in my human form, there would be some of them following (stalking, I think it was called) me. Occasionally…I could see some of them…beat up, as humans say, other poor humans. All the while yelling, "That's for getting in my way!" I did not know what the beaten human did in order to "get in their way", though. For all I knew though…maybe human males prefer violent females? Perhaps it was attractive? It was so confusing.

She was heading in Naruto's direction. At this point, I had jumped onto Naruto's head to see better and I was hidden by Naruto's hair. I could still see out of it though.

"Naruto! Move! I want to sit next to Sasuke!" Sakura human said, or rather, yelled that.

Sasuke…the child I had spoke to on the day of the Uchiha Massacre, as it came to be called. I still was not sure if he remembered me, so I had been avoiding him. This was the human that Sakura human herself saw as a potential mate. Poor Naruto. Or…would it be _lucky_ Naruto. She _was _prone to violence.

Naruto did not seem to like Sasuke. According to Naruto, he was…arrogant. (Actually, Naruto put it in a lot worse words, but that was the summary, anyway.)

While I had been thinking, Naruto had gone over to Sasuke human. He was now perched on the desk in front of Sasuke human. A bit too close…Naruto was going to fall.

As I expected…he fell. The person behind Naruto had accidentally pushed him over. I was still on Naruto's head, but I was fine.

Naruto was not. When he had fallen, his lips had come in contact with Sasuke human's…

I thought that was an intimate act for humans? I dearly hoped it was an accident. Apparently, it was. The next thing I knew, both humans involved were gagging and spitting. It was actually quite amusing.

Then I could feel some killer intent…coming from Sakura. I sensed upcoming violence.

As I predicted, she tried to punch Naruto. The mistake she made…was trying to hit Naruto on his head. _I_ was on his head.

How dare she try to hit _me_! (Actually, she did not know I was there…but I did not think of that at the time.) So, before her hand actually came into contact with me…I bit it. (I did not want to light Naruto's hair on fire…already did that once. On accident!)

I let go as she pulled her hand up and _shrieked_. "Naruto! What do you have in your hair?"

"My hair?" He reached his hand up. I jumped into it. "Oh…this is Akarui. You must have come to close to hitting him. Sorry, Sakura-chan." He sounded sheepish. "Akarui is sorry, right?"

I just turned my head in the other direction. She has almost_ hit_ me! _Of course_ I was _not_ sorry for biting her! She deserved it.

Before Sakura human could yell more (thank Suzaku*), Iruka human came in. He began, after a short speech, to divide the children into teams.

"And team seven is Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto…" At this, Naruto jumped up while Sakura slumped. The Iruka continued. "And Uchiha Sasuke." At this, Naruto slumped while Sakura jumped. Humans were so amusing.

Naruto was annoyed. "Why do I, an outstanding shinobi, have to be with _him_?" I think some of my formal language rubbed off on him. It only appeared when Naruto was mad though.

"Naruto! Out of all the graduates, your grades were _dead last_!" Iruka human was mad now. Poor Naruto.

Sasuke human spoke. "Just don't get in my way." Naruto was right about him…arrogant human.

Sakura human started to try and beat him up again. So I bit her again. She really should stop trying to hit _me_. Naruto was going to be mad at me. Oh well, it was worth it. As of now, she probably would not make a good mate for Naruto anyway. He would end up dying early if she was. Possible later…or not, at the rate things are going.

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><p>So now that Naruto received the teams, it was time for lunch. While Naruto stayed. I flew back to the apartment. I wanted to get my headband and show it to Naruto.<p>

To my surprise, I could hear voices from inside. One of them was wrinkly human's. I flew through the high open window left open for the purpose.

I landed in front of the humans. There were two humans, wrinkly human…and a silver gravity-defying hair human. Maybe I should call him that? No, too long…

"Akarui-san!" Wrinkly human noticed. How very observant, considering I was in front of him and all.

I just looked at the silver-haired human next to wrinkly human. Lazy-looking human? No. I should just call him by his name and species…like I have done for a while now. There are just too many humans.

Wrinkly human continued. "This is Hatake Kakashi. He will be the jounin instructor for Naruto and his team."

The…Kakashi human just looked at me with a confused expression. "Hokage-sama, why are you talking to a bird?"

Wrinkly human just looked at me. Then he said, "Well, Akarui-san, aren't you going to say anything?"

Why not? The Kakashi human would find out soon as it was anyway. Wrinkly human only told him because he knew that. "Wrinkly human, Kakashi human…what exactly are you doing breaking into Naruto's apartment? Explain. _Now_."

Kakashi human looked surprised. Wrinkly human just made a funny sound. Naruto told me it was called a chuckle. A _chuckle_. Such a strange word. "Akarui-san is Naruto's nin-bird."

At this, Kakashi human nodded. I had absolutely no clue what went on in his head. He had a mask covering his face, and his headband covered one eye. His other eye gave the impression that he was a lazy human…but still showed no expression. I could not read the human at all.

"I do not _belong_ to Naruto. And _explain_. Now. What are you two doing here?" Honestly, I did not really care. I just wanted to see what they would say.

Wrinkly human was the one who responded. "We were just checking up on Naruto and his apartment."

Then Kakashi human spoke. "This milk went bad a couple of days ago."

"Again? I thought I told him to throw it away…in fact he did throw a carton away. Wait, that means…he threw away the _new_ milk!" The milk…I liked it. He threw away the new milk! What a stupid human!

After my small rant, I looked back at the wrinkly human and the Kakashi human. "So, you will be Naruto's new teacher?"

The human nodded. I could hear him mutter, "This will be so troublesome."

I felt a little sorry for him. He had to deal with _Naruto_. That was a handful. He also had to handle a traumatized arrogant child and another human female child that was infatuated with said traumatized arrogant child. Poor Kakashi human.

"…I feel sorry for you. They will be…quite troublesome indeed. I wish you the best of luck. _And_, you better teach Naruto _well_. Or else I will light your hair on fire. And that is just the beginning." I said this all quite cheerfully. Lighting a human's hair on fire was quite fun.

He just stared blankly at me. What was that tear-shaped drop on the back of his head?

With such interesting humans around, I would not be getting bored anytime soon. So this was Naruto's new instructor? This should be interesting. I was looking forward to what was going to happen next.

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><p>Author's Note: Yay! Finished. Below are the things I *. And my explanation etc. for them.<p>

*Headband for Akarui: I know that Akamaru and the rest of the Inuzuka dogs do not have one. But Kakashi's nin-dogs _do_. So I gave Akarui one.

*Suzaku: One of the Four Celestial Guardians of Four Directions. Suzaku is the Red Bird (Phoenix) of the South. While Akarui is actually based on the Arabian phoenix (bursts into flames…reborn) I wanted to make a mention of the Chinese/Japanese equivalent of phoenixes.

Thanks to all who helped out!


	18. Chapter 17: Take the Bells

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 17: Take the Bells<p>

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><p>After meeting wrinkly human and Kakashi human, I took my ninja headband in my claws and flew back to the academy.<p>

After all, Naruto and his…new team would be meeting Kakashi human soon. I wanted to see their reactions.

I soon got the academy, but apparently, the Kakashi human was not there yet. He must be late…

Naruto, Sakura human, and Sasuke human were all in the classroom. There were some other humans also. I, who was now the size of a hawk, landed outside the window. I would come in either when all the other humans were gone or when Kakashi human actually came.

Soon, all the humans, with the exception of Naruto, Sakura human, and Sasuke human were left. Time to go in, I supposed.

I circled the building, located the door, flew in, and navigated through the inside of the building to the class. The window should have been open. It would have been much easier.

Once I was inside the classroom, I landed onto one of the front row desks.

Naruto brightened up, Sakura human looked surprised, and Sasuke human narrowed his eyes. I guessed that the other two did not know who I was.

"Akarui! You're here!" Naruto was happy. "What are you holding?"

I lifted up the headband. Let's see if Naruto can guess. "Um, why do you have that?"

Nope, he could not. Try again. I just waited, looking at him. "Um, is that yours?"

He got it. I chirped. I picked it up with my beak. Would he get what I wanted him to do? I wanted him to tie it around my neck (since the possibility of me being strangled and dying that way was quite low…and where else was I supposed to put it).

Naruto actually understood. I believed that it was because he spent such a long time with me that by now he understood my actions without me having to talk. I wanted to surprise the Sakura human and the Sasuke human later. Sasuke human might not be surprised though...

So Naruto tied the headband around my neck.

After that, Sakura human spoke. "Naruto, what _is_ that?"

Naruto answered. "It's Akarui!"

Sakura had a strange look on her face. "You have two birds named Akarui?"

"Nope!" was Naruto's cheerful reply. Sakura human just looked confused. The Sasuke human just watched. He did not seem to like to talk much.

After a long while, Naruto got impatient. The Kakashi human was quite late. So Naruto got the chalkboard eraser and put it between the two doors, leaving the doors slightly open. Whoever opened it next would get a hair full of dust.

I did not prevent him. Doing pranks and tricks could actually make someone smarter…and Naruto needed some more intelligence.

The two humans said something in response to his actions, but I was not listening, so I did not register what they said.

Then a hand appeared and pulled the door open. Kakashi human got a hair full of dust. Poor human. I felt really bad for him by this point.

Naruto was laughing yelling, "Hahaha, you fell for it!" I thought he was going to fall over from laughter.

Sakura human began apologizing for Naruto. Sasuke human said nothing.

"My first impression is that…I don't like you guys." That came from Kakashi human. "Come to the roof."

The human disappeared. I flew over to Naruto and landed on his shoulder as he and his new team ascended the stairs. Note to self: Get some sort of cloth protection for Naruto's shoulder. I was probably giving him a lot of cuts since I was at a bigger size. Not that he said anything about it.

We got to the roof. "Well, how about we introduce ourselves." Now Kakashi human wanted us to introduce ourselves? "We can start with likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and things like that."

"Hey, how about you introduce yourself first." Naruto said that.

The Kakashi human introduced himself. I honestly was not listening since I already met him and all.

Then Naruto went. I knew him also, so I did not listen.

Then Sasuke human. Apparently he wanted to kill someone. Most probably his brother.

And Sakura human…well I did not learn anything from her except that she did not like Naruto.

My turn. The reactions should be good. "I am Akarui. I like learning about different things. I dislike…things. Dreams for the future…I am already living it. Hobbies, well, see above at my likes. I am…a nin-bird, I suppose." No need to tell them my dislikes, sometimes those could be used against you. Or Naruto could use it somehow against me. I would rather not have to eat my least favorite food and things like that.

Sakura human looked more than surprised with her gaping expression and all. Sasuke human's eyes had widened then narrowed again. Perhaps he remembered me? Kakashi human already knew about me, so no reaction from him. And Naruto looked surprised that I had revealed myself.

"Naruto! Your bird can talk!" Yes, Sakura human. I am glad you noticed.

"Hn." Sasuke human's reaction was really boring.

"What? You're a nin-bird?" That came from Naruto.

"Yes Naruto. I talked to the wrinkly human about it. I shall be working with you. Why else do you think I asked you to put on the headband for me? So that is all."

Kakashi human then spoke up. "So now that the introductions are finished, tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi."

"Really? What kind of duties?" Naruto really wanted to know, it seemed.

"Survival training," responded the Kakashi human. Survival training? What was that?

I was thinking about that, so I did not notice that the conversation continued. Until he told us something that surprised me.

…Apparently, out of all the graduates, only…nine would become genin. _What_? The graduation test was for what then?

"Then Kakashi human, tell me, what was the point of the graduation exam?"

"Yeah! I worked so hard for it!" Naruto had…and now to find out that it was a waste…

"Oh that? That was just to see who had the chance to become genin."

He had to be joking with me. Naruto and I had spent _years_ working on that _stupid, stupid_ Clone Jutsu and now to find out this? I wanted to light something, preferably Kakashi human's hair, on fire.

"Anyway, come to the training ground tomorrow, and don't eat breakfast. You'll throw up. Don't be late tomorrow."

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><p>Later, at night, Naruto was training. As for myself, I was planning to light Kakashi human's silver hair on fire. A nice big, bright bonfire.<p>

All those years…when Naruto could have gone on…were wasted. I was not happy.

And tomorrow, well…Naruto would pass. That was a certainty. Especially if I had anything to do about it.

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><p>When Naruto arrived at training ground, Sasuke human and Sakura human were already there. Kakashi human was not.<p>

Yesterday, I had gotten something for Naruto to put on his shoulder so that my talons would not dig into his shoulder. So I was comfortably on his shoulder.

This morning, I had demanded breakfast. Naruto said that I was not supposed to eat any, but I was hungry…and whatever we were doing would require energy. Besides…I do not take orders from humans. When Naruto saw me eat, he got hungry also. So he ate.

Apparently the other humans had not, judging by the noises that came from the stomach area of the humans.

We waited for a while, before Kakashi human finally arrived.

He then proceeded to explain to us the point of the survival exercise. We had to get a bell. The one who did not get the bell would go back to the academy.

So, this was to eliminate the weakest member of the team? Wait…a _team_. Did they expect the children to work in a team to defeat the jounin? I believed so...It was a bit much really. The children, while they had not just met, had certainly first met with all three of them being in the same group. And they expected teamwork? I guessed that they expected the children to at least try.

Now, to see of Naruto understood the point. I turned to look at him. No…he did not. Not yet.

I had not been paying attention while I had been thinking, so the next thing I knew, Naruto had pulled out a kunai…and Kakashi human was behind him, holding Naruto's hand.

Naruto had tried to attack first, I deduced. Then Kakashi human said something…and then we finally started.

"Naruto…for now, hide." Naruto complied. I looked at the jounin in the training ground. "Naruto…do you think that you, as a genin…could really take on Kakashi, a jounin? Use your head, not your confidence." Now…to see if he would get my drift.

He hesitated…then shook his head. "But then, what are we supposed to do?"

"_We_? Why…how else to get the bell from a _jounin_? There _are _only two of us, right?" Naruto…I gave enough hints. Figure it out already.

"Wait! There's Sakura-chan and the bastard!" He got it.

"Well? Then do something about the fact that we are all split up."

Naruto ran further away from the clearing. I soon spotted Sakura human. After I pointed her out to Naruto, he ran over to her.

"Sakura-chan!"

"Naruto! Be quieter! Kakashi-sensei's going to hear you!" That was true. Naruto did need to be quieter. He was too loud sometimes.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan. But I think I have an idea about how to pass this test!"

"…You…have an idea? Yeah right! Well, I'm going to find Sasuke-kun!" Off she went…

"Well…maybe this teamwork thing is not going to work. I do not think that Sasuke human will want to work with you, either." I said that to Naruto, while wondering what else we were supposed to do. "I guess that we will just have to ask."

We went to look for Sasuke human. Then we heard a scream in the distance. "Sakura-chan!" Naruto must have been worried.

He started to run toward the direction of the scream. Until we passed by a clearing that had the Sasuke human's head in it. We stopped. "Hey, Sasuke, what happened?"

"It doesn't matter," he said, getting himself out. "I'm going after the bell again."

"Wait! I have an idea about that!"

"I don't need your help." With that, the Sasuke human left.

"Fine, that is it," I said to Naruto, "we get it ourselves."

We headed to where we believed Kakashi human to be. He was there. Naruto decided to go for a surprise attack. All of my years trying to drill logic into his head had not been a waste after all.

Once he thought he saw an opening, he attacked. I was no longer on his shoulder. I was ready to back up Naruto, which would certainly be necessary.

Naruto had a kunai, and he was trying to use it. But the Kakashi human was quite good. He dodged all of Naruto's attacks, jumping up and moving sideways. He then got behind Naruto.

My turn, before poor Naruto ends up halfway across the clearing. I flew at the Kakashi human, then opened my mouth and spat a large fireball at the human, then I flew across him to the other side. He was surprised. I do not think he knew about my fire affinity. Ha, I had _more_ than an affinity with fire.

While Kakashi human used the Body Replacement Jutsu, Naruto prepared his own jutsu. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" We could do with more Narutos.

I soon spotted Kakashi human again. It was hard to hide from my eyesight. After pointing it out to Naruto, his clones attacked Kakashi human, who was on the tree. Kakashi had no problem dispelling the Naruto clones. Well, he was a jounin.

But…before Naruto could do anything else, the bell rang. It was noon.

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><p>Author's note: Finished. Enjoy! Thanks to all my reviewers of course. And if you are reading this...please review. So I replaced the chapter I put up yesterday, since the uploader is working again. So this one should be as mistake-free as much as it can be. Thanks for reading. Please review if you have just read this.<p> 


	19. Chapter 18: Pass or Fail

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 18: Pass or Fail<p>

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><p>The alarm had already rung. It was noon.<p>

A while later brought Naruto and his team back to the center of the grounds. Sakura human was tied to one of the tall stumps. Apparently because she had not really done anything.

Kakashi human faced us. "There's no need for you to go back to the academy."

Naruto looked up. "You mean..."

Kakashi finished, "I mean you should all quit as ninjas."

Naruto got angry. "Quit as ninjas? Why is that? We could not get the bells…but why should we quit?" Indeed…but perhaps that was not the point of the test. Teamwork…

"Because all of you don't deserve to be ninja." At this, Sasuke human tried to attack the Kakashi human. He failed. "Why do you think that ninja are place into teams? You guys didn't understand the answer to the test."

Naruto hesitated, then spoke. "Answer to the test? Do you mean teamwork?"

"Precisely. Naruto knew the answer, but Sakura was too concerned with Sasuke. And Sasuke only wanted to work alone. Together, the three of you could have gotten the bells."

What about me? Ignore the bright phoenix will you? Anyway…so that _was_ the true point of the test. So Naruto and I were right…but we could not do anything about it.

The Kakashi human continued with his explanation. There were less bells then the amount of the team to keep them from working as a team. Not that they needed the discouragement, they would not have worked together even with three bells.

He proceeded to give a…demonstration of a hostage situation. He then told us about a memorial stone. He said his best friend's name was on the stone.

Best friend? Still? He was a little trapped in the past, it seemed.

Then, "I'll give you one more chance. But after lunch, it will be even harder. If you want to take the challenge, you can still eat lunch. But don't give any to Sakura. If you do, it's immediate failure."

He left after that. I looked at Sakura human from my perch on the next log over. She certainly looked hungry.

"It's fine. I'm not hungry." The statement was immediately proved to be a lie when her stomach grumbled.

"Here." This came from Sasuke human. Strange. "If you don't eat now, you'll just be in the way."

"Sasuke-kun…"

Naruto, not to be outdone, offered his to her also. Did he forget that _I _needed food also? He then turned to me. "You can have some too, Akarui!" He did not…that is nice of him.

Then a large dust cloud approached us. So the Kakashi human was watching like I thought he was. I knew he would be watching. He wanted us to work as a team…and a team had to look out for its members. He came toward us, surprising Naruto and the other humans. "You pass!"

When asked why…he just said, "Those who don't care for their comrades are lower than trash." What an interesting human. That applied even if you do not like your "comrades?" Why? Why would you have to care about someone you do not like? Humans are strange. That had never been the case where I came from.

"Tomorrow, you will all begin your duties as Team Seven!" Kakashi human said this while holding up his hand with the thumb pointing up. A pose of some kind? What did that mean?

Naruto exploded. "I did it! I did it! I'm a ninja! I'm a ninja." He was so noisy that I wished that I had hands to cover my ears. I was happy for him though.

"Naruto! You are too loud!" After I told him that, he quieted.

Kakashi human told them to go…and they left Sakura human tied to the post. Poor human. I burned off the ropes to free her. So much for the "care for comrades." But…maybe I had some of that too.

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><p>In the days after…it was mission after mission. The thing was…they were the most <em>boring<em> missions. This was the third time we had to catch the same cat.

After the team was finished calculating the distance to the cat….I just scooped it up in my talons like I was supposed to and deposited the cat onto Naruto. This was taking too long.

"Hey! Akarui!" Naruto was yelling that while wrestling with the cat. He was _losing._ To a cat. I predicted that he would get many scars…that would later disappear.

When we returned the cat to the owner…the owner tried to squeeze it to death. The human should stop. It was no wonder that genin teams always had to chase the same cat.

Over the last few weeks…the team had weeded gardens, baby-sat, found lost pets…and a multitude of other menial tasks. I did not actually take part in most of it…having no hands. (To the team's, excepting Naruto's, knowledge.)

The team received payment, including me…but it was boring. Imagine…_me _wasting all of my time on…a _human's_ pet _cat_. That was exactly what was happening. I was frustrated. So was Naruto.

Wrinkly human was there giving out missions at the mission reception area. "Now, Team Seven, your next mission is to baby-sit an elder's grandson, shopping, and help with potato digging." See, menial tasks.

I flew up to the desk in front of the wrinkly human. This was it. If I had to do one more task like that (even if I did not do most of it) I would end up burning down something important, promise or no promise.

Before even Naruto could yell, I was talking. "Wrinkly human…if you give _me_ one more menial task," I said this sweetly, "I will cause so much fire damage that you will never have an ounce of your measly human time away from paperwork again. My promise did not concern what would happen if I was subjected to this, did it?" That was said…quietly, in order to avoid being heard, but not too sweetly. What? I was not too happy.

The human's face turned quite white. Then Naruto started to yell. "I want a better mission! We've been doing too many of these kinds of missions already! Please, Ojii-san?"

At this, Iruka human, who had been sitting next to wrinkly human started a lecture. I did not really listen…and Naruto seemed to be trying to decide what to eat for dinner. As for me…I wanted to eat some fish for dinner. Fish would be good right now.

Wrinkly human finally spoke. "Fine, if you want it that much, I'll give you a C-rank. It entails the protection of a certain individual." Finally!

"Who? Who?" Naruto wanted to know…and frankly, so did I.

Then a man came in. He looked a little old…and was holding a bottle of…something. He spoke, "They're all brats. Especially the shortest one with the stupid face."

So…Naruto might have a stupid-looking face, but he was not stupid (my training..._mostly _paid off). "Hey! I am not stupid! That is why I will not kill you even though I want to! That would destroy the point of the mission!" Formal language. He must be mad. He still looked like he wanted to kill the man. Kakashi human was not too discretely holding him back a little.

"I'm Tazuna, the expert bridge builder. I expect all of you to give me protection until the completion of the bridge."

I just chirped happily. Finally, a good mission…and an out of village one.

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><p>So after that, we had some time left to ourselves. Naruto left to prepare. I left to prepare and…buy some things.<p>

I wanted to train my human form more. Humans actually had a better way to physically fight then my real form at this time, and in this world. I might have to use it. Though my form was better, I lacked the size I once had. This place also had a lot of forests…as far as I could see. If I were to use my true size, it would be difficult to maneuver close to the ground. Not to mention the damage to the forest if I were to use fire. Not to mention I did not want what happen to the tailed beasts to happen to me. That meant not showing any of my stronger powers.

And I was a ninja…meaning I had to fight. I usually did not like fighting…but I was not too worried about any physical harm that humans may do to me. I was more worried about _sealing _now. I would rather not be trapped in a human host. I liked my freedom.

So I went to the weapons store in my human form (it turns out I had to have Naruto remove the ninja headband…and then I had to put it back on in human form. If I wore it when I changed to my human form, it would disappear.)

Inside the store, there were some more humans. A girl with twin buns on her head and a boy near her…in green spandex.

Green spandex human saw me. "Yosh! What a youthful person, to be out and preparing!"

Were humans always like this? I just stared at him. Beside him was his…teammate I think. She was just shaking her head.

"Oh, I have yet to introduce myself! I am Rock Lee!"

I decided to answer. "Um…I am Akarui…" This human was disturbing me. He had the…strangest features. Really strange hair…and eyebrows. Could human eyes _even_ be that round?

"It is wonderful to meet a person so filled with the Flames of Youth, Akarui-san!"

"It is…nice to meet you too." That was subjective, actually. I was regretting telling him my name.

"Are you here to buy weapons for a mission, Akarui-san?"

"Yes." Please….go away!

There were now tears streaming down his eyes. "Such a display of youthfulness!" If only he knew that I was much, much older than even his grandfather… "I am here with my most youthful teammate, Tenten!"

"How…nice." What else was I supposed to say? He was….scaring me a little.

Then another human came in. This human looked exactly like the other green spandex human! There were two of them? Oh…no…

"Lee, my most youthful student! Who is the youthful person you are talking to?" The adult green spandex person was…just like the other one!

"This is Akarui-san!. He burns bright with the Flames of Youth!" Little green spandex human said that. Someone…help me. Now the older one knows my name.

"How un-youthful of me! I have forgotten to introduce myself! I am Maito Gai, Konoha's beautiful green beast!" He said this with a bright smile and a pose. He almost blinded me. With my vision…I really did nearly go blind.

I blinked. And blinked again. I had to wait for my vision to return. "Nice…to meet…you." No! It was not! They are the strangest humans ever!

"Akarui-san is being most youthful! He is preparing!" Little green spandex human said that.

"What a most youthful thing to do! And Lee, what a youthful thing to say!" Adult green spandex human was crying now.

So was little green spandex human. I noticed by now that Tenten human had disappeared. Little green spandex human started talking also. "Gai-sensei!"

So was the adult green spandex human. "Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!" At this the adult green spandex human threw his arms around the younger. He was still crying.

"Gai-sensei!" could be heard as the little human hugged back his teacher, crying all the way.

This was ridiculous! Someone…help me! They were, by far the strangest humans…to ever walk this world!

So I ran. Out of the shop, into the street into the alley…until I was safely back into my real form. I did not even buy any weapons. What else could I do? Nothing! So…horrifying! I never ever want to talk to those humans again. Who knew that being a human was so dangerous?

I bought some weapon somewhere else. On the other side of the village. Where it was safe.

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><p>When I returned back to the apartment, Naruto was already all prepared. And so was I. It turned out that when I turned from one form to the other, whether it be phoenix to human or human to phoenix…all items on my person would disappear. It would only reappear when I turned back. So if I wanted to keep something through my transformation, I would have to remove it from my person.<p>

So I turned back to my phoenix form with all my new weapons in their respective pouches which were on me. They disappeared with my human form. But I still kept the headband for my phoenix form. But I had to ask Naruto to tie it back on. Human hands were indeed useful.

And tomorrow would be the start of our first out of village _and_ our first C-rank mission. This should be interesting.

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><p>Author's note: Yay! Finished. Yes…I know it is canon-y, but I have not found the right place to divulge from the plotline as of yet.<p>

And of course, thanks to all my reviewers! I know it is repetitive, but your reviews really make me happy! So please…if you are reading this and enjoyed the story…review and tell me.


	20. Chapter 19: Assigned against Bandits

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any money from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 19: Assigned against Bandits, Attacked by Ninja<p>

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><p>So tomorrow would be the day of the mission. As I expected…the day came quickly.<p>

It was now the day of the mission.

So Team Seven met at the large gates of Konoha. Surprisingly the Kakashi human was not _that_ late.

Naruto was obviously excited. He was running around. He _was_ trying to jump around, but after he almost shook me off his shoulder and I got mad at him, he just settled for running around in circles.

He wanted to leave…and soon. "Let's go!"

A conversation started…but I soon lost interest. The bridge builder said little that interested me. Naruto did get angry at him though. Something about respect and being the Hokage. Whatever. It did not matter to me as much as it mattered to Naruto. He could argue that on his own.

While Naruto and the bridge builder had been arguing, all the humans had also been walking. Very soon we were a far distance away from the village.

While we had been walking, I noticed some…human at the top of a tree. Actually, there were two. They were behind us. I believed that Kakashi human probably noticed as well.

I opted not to say anything. They were most likely enemies…but they might not have been aiming for us. Also…it _is_ a ninja's job to fight and this was the team's first out of village mission.

We kept walking along and after a long conversation about something that I had not been listening to, I saw a puddle.

A puddle? Had it rained lately? I was pretty sure that it had not rained recently. I would have known if it had. I hated rain. So it must be man-made. A trap then.

I saw that Kakashi human noticed it also.

Well, then, if it was a trap...what was the trap, or rather, _who_ was it for? Us? Well, in order to figure it out…we would have to wait. If the trap was not intended for us…then it would not be sprung and attacking it would have been a waste.

As we passed the puddle…nothing happened. Not for us then? Then we went past it completely.

It was then that the trap was sprung. It_ was_ for us. They took down Kakashi human first. Though the human would not be taken down that easily. I saw the logs. A Body Replacement Jutsu. He would be fine. But he had not come back to help.

Then the enemy ninja, no, _ninjas_, were behind Naruto. Before he could do anything, Sasuke human had pinned the enemies' chains to a tree. Sasuke human then attacked them. It did not stop the enemy ninjas for long.

"Naruto! Move!" Naruto finally started reacting at my yell. When one of the enemy ninja tried to attack him, he deflected the attack with his own kunai. To follow up with his deflection, I blew a stream of fire in the enemy's direction. I was careful not to hit Naruto.

The stream of fire had been dead on. Unavoidable. The ninja had been too close to avoid it. He was certainly burned. Naruto then took advantage of the…distraction. He punched the enemy in the face. Hard. The enemy rocked backwards a bit.

The ninja had not been aiming at Naruto however. He had simply been trying to remove the obstacle. He had really been aiming _behind_ the child. At the bridge builder.

Then Kakashi human reappeared on the scene. He instantly took the two enemy ninjas out. He was fast. Or should I say _slow_? He _had_ taken some time to actually come and help.

I turned to Naruto. "Really Naruto, next time, do _not _freeze. It _will_ cost you." Naruto nodded. I think he was still in a slight shock from the battle.

Then Kakashi human spoke to us. "Nice job Sasuke, and Naruto." Then, "Tazuna-san, I need to talk to you."

Oh yes, the Tazuna human had been hiding something from us. The Kakashi human had said that on a mission like this, we should not be attacked by enemy ninja. Yet we had.

"Yes, bridge builder, I believe that you have some lies to sort out." I said this to him. It would be fine to reveal myself. The human was most likely not coming back to Konoha. And I believed that I knew enough about humans. So as long as I was careful, it should be fine to talk to some of them.

He was shocked. Of course…I should be used to this by now.

Then the two enemy ninjas interrupted, even though they were tied up (they had not heard me of course). Kakashi human just explained to them how he knew that they were there. And why he left the team to fight also.

Kakashi human continued. "According to the mission ranking, we are to be protecting you from bandits and the like. Not ninjas. Now it's at least a B-rank." He said this with a completely bored look. Like the mission ranks being downplayed happened every day. Actually, who knows? It could actually.

Sakura human broke in. "We aren't ready for this! Let's quit!"

"Hmm, maybe we should…" said Kakashi human.

"No way! We already accepted the mission! We can't stop halfway!" That was from Naruto.

Then the bridge builder spoke up. He convinced Kakashi human to continue. Apparently, some Gato human was controlling their country. The bridge builder wanted to break the economic control by…of course…building a bridge. He guilt trapped Kakashi human into helping. Were these really supposed to be ninjas?

So we foraged ahead. Soon, we were on a boat with our first view of the bridge. It was impressive. Not that I would ever need it. Bridges were useless to me. But the poor humans needed it. Since they were land bound and all.

I noticed that Naruto had opened his mouth and was preparing to say something.

Better stop him. "Naruto! Be quiet! Can you not see that silence is desired right now?"

"Oh, sorry!" Now he sounded sheepish. I sighed. Why me?

Soon we were off the boat and back onto land. We were back to walking. Or Naruto was. I was going to be on his shoulder. I did not want to fly at the moment.

We were walking when I saw a movement in the bushes. So did Naruto. He threw a shuriken…and promptly hit a rabbit. I wondered if I could eat it.

Though Sakura was yelling at Naruto for doing that…and Naruto was apologizing to the rabbit. _What_? Don't apologize to food! Actually, keep hugging it like that! It should die at that rate! It was a perfectly edible white rabbit. How strange…the rabbit demons (strange was it not?) of Makai were always white only in winter and brown in the other seasons.

So…why was it white? I guessed that rabbits here were different from their demon counterparts. Personally, the rabbit demons were fluffier.

Then Kakashi human yelled out, "Everybody, get down!"

So everybody instantly complied. Honestly, I was half expecting Naruto to say, "Why?" I flew up however. I did not want to be dashed against the ground from Naruto's impact.

Because I flew up, I could see the spinning long blade that would have separated the humans' bodies in half if they had not ducked.

The team went back up to their feet. As Kakashi human said something, I could see that Naruto wanted badly to attack.

I flew back to his shoulder. "Naruto, do not attack. You do not know the level of the enemy…and it seems that Kakashi human has deemed him dangerous."

He whispered back to me. "I know…but…"

Then Kakashi human told everybody to get back. And then he lifted up his headband to reveal a red eye. A red eye with three black marks in it. I heard what the enemy ninja, apparently named Zabuza, called it. The Sharingan.

Was that not the doujutsu of the Uchiha clan that had been massacred years ago? Why did _Hatake_ Kakashi human have it? The Sharingan. I knew that it was a doujutsu…but I did not know its capabilities. Well, I would get to see what the human Kakashi could do.

Sasuke human explained the eye a little more. He would know. So did the enemy Zabuza human. To read and defeat all types of Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu? And copy them? How interesting. No, it was actually completely fascinating.

Who knew humans could do that? Such interesting creatures. What a world I had gone to.

The Zabuza human continued. But I was not listening. I was still thinking.

Then the human Zabuza disappeared and reappeared on the water. He was using chakra to support himself. Then, "Hidden Mist Jutsu."

As mist appeared, the enemy disappeared. Kakashi human explained. Apparently, our enemy was skilled in "silent killing." So…he killed silently. How…nice. Not really.

After Kakashi human finished speaking…the enemy human spoke. Something about eight places and death. I could feel the killing intent in the air.

The small humans would not be able to take it. I saw that they were shaking. Kakashi human noticed. "Don't worry, I'll protect you guys even if it kills me. I don't let my comrades die."

Well, if he meant it…I would respect him. Though if it does kill him…his protection would no longer exist, would it? The human had better not die then.

Then I sensed the humans. They were about to appear in the midst of us. Both of them. So Kakashi human would be able to handle it. There was no time to react anyway.

The two of them, both Kakashi human and the Zabuza human appeared in the middle of us. Just as I had predicted.

As Kakashi human stabbed the man…it was revealed to be a clone. Naruto yelled at Kakashi human to tell him that there was an attack from the back. As Kakashi human was sliced…it was revealed to be a clone also.

Then it was Kakashi human that appeared in the back of the enemy. "It's over." No human, it was never over until the enemy is dead or incapacitated in some way. The enemy was none of those. It would not be over.

As I thought…it was not. After a short talk…that Zabuza clone was fake also. The real one appeared behind Kakashi human. After a short physical fight…Zabuza human knocked Kakashi human into the water.

And then the Kakashi human was completely encased into a water sphere. A prison. What were we supposed to do now?

I sighed. As probably the oldest member (and the strongest) I probably would have to do something. Troublesome humans.

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><p>Author's note: Yes! Finished! Ok, so this was almost completely canon-y…but of course. Akarui does not influence Zabuza or even Kakashi yet. His biggest influence is obviously on Naruto. You will see much more of that next chapter.<p>

Also…I also wrote another story…though I am sure it will stay a one-shot…unless people want me to continue it. You can go and read it. Though it is not nearly as light-hearted as this fic. (It's a _complete_ one-eighty) so people who read this one…may not like the other one. So I advise that you read the summary first if you are going to read the other one. It is called _The Wrath of Kyuubi_.

And that's pretty much all for now. Of course, much thanks to all of my reviewers! I love the reviews….so please continue to review! And to all who read this…if you like this story…or even dislike it, let me know why. Those really help out! So please...review.


	21. Chapter 20: The Hunter and the Hunted

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 20: The Hunter and the Hunted<p>

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><p>Now that the Kakashi human was trapped, what were we to do?<p>

Then Zabuza human was speaking. "A real ninja is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death." As he said this, another water clone appeared.

Numerous brushes with death? Then that would count Naruto. After all, I _had _nearly burned down his apartment several times. But, that was probably not what the Zabuza human was talking about.

Then the enemy water clone disappeared. Where did it go? Oh, in front.

I simply spat a fireball at the incoming water clone and watched it dodge. Naruto, at this point, had not undergone enough training in order to match that speed. Note to self: start lighting Kakashi human's hair on fire due to improper training of Naruto. And I decided that I would have to help Naruto increase his speed.

"Hmph. Brats!" That had come from the real Zabuza human. I took offense at that. Did I look like a human brat?

Then Kakashi human told us to run. He could talk in the water sphere? That was not the main concern though.

What should I do? Listen to the human? I was probably stronger than the Zabuza human, but Naruto and the rest of his team were certainly not.

As it was, I did not have to decide. Naruto refused to leave his teacher. But there was still the matter of the clone.

We would have to destroy the clone. And then there was the real Zabuza who held Kakashi human in the water sphere. I would certainly have to back them up. The enemy was clearly out of their league. Maybe if they could free Kakashi human?

"Akarui, Sasuke, and Sakura. Listen. I have a plan." A plan? Naruto had a plan? Well then, let us hear it.

Kakashi human tried to prevent this, reminding us of the bridge builder. I turned to the builder. The bridge builder told us to go ahead with the plan.

Then Zabuza told us about his own graduation exams. How disgusting. Humans would never cease to amaze me. How different they were from each other.

Then the Zabuza human attacked. No time for Naruto to tell us the plan. _Great_.

Naruto did see this attack though. Probably because it was not aimed at him, but at the Sasuke human.

As the Sasuke human went flying, before anymore harm could be done, Naruto substituted him. With me.

I expected that. Smart human. One plan of ours was to substitute me in order for me to get in an attack. My reaction time was fast. I would be able to recover from the substitution faster than a human would.

As the targets changed, the clone still continued attacking. I would have to destroy it. I completely lit my feathers on fire. Anything that touched me would burn.

And that included the clone. As it went closer to me, it turned to steam. It was a water clone after all. Water clone, destroyed.

As I had been doing that, Naruto had been preparing his own attack also. Except his attack was on the real Zabuza human. He had made clones of himself again. And they all held kunai and I could see them scatter.

Kakashi human had told us that Zabuza human could not move while holding the prison jutsu active. That meant that he was susceptible to attacks.

Naruto, Sasuke human, and even Sakura human could now see the opening that there was now that there was no water clone to defend the original.

Many sets of kunai were thrown at the Zabuza human. The kunai had all been thrown at a different angle from each other. And in the case that the kunai missed, I had a sneaking suspicion that many of them were actually clones in disguise.

Had Naruto planned all that? There was no way that the human could dodge all of those without letting go of the water prison. And even Sasuke human and Sakura human had noticed Naruto's plan. They had thrown some kunai, and blocked all the angles that Naruto and his clones had missed.

That had been their original goal, I realized. Smart humans. They had realized that there was no way that they could defeat their opponent. So instead they settled for freeing the Kakashi human by forcing the Zabuza human to dodge.

Perhaps I should help out these humans less? They were growing on their own. Of course, I would help if I had to. But they were doing well. Even without me they would have done well.

And now that the Kakashi human had been freed, it was time for the rest of the team to recuperate.

After a short conversation, the battle began again. Why do the ninjas always have a conversation before the battle? Was it really necessary?

Both ninja began a series of hand signs. Both yelled, "Water Dragon Blast Jutsu" at the exact same time.

The Kakashi human was perfectly mirroring the other human's movements. So that was what the Sharingan could do. Impressive.

For some reason, the Zabuza human froze in the middle of a jutsu. He never finished. Kakashi human finished for him.

Because of a great blast of water, Zabuza human crashed into a tree. "How? Can you see the future?"

Kakashi human looked at him. "Yeah. You're going to die."

And then I saw another human on a tree at the side. That human threw something.

And the "somethings" hit the Zabuza human in the neck. Senbon needles.

"You're right. He's dead now." Those were the first words that the new human spoke. The human had on a mask of some sort. "Thank you very much. I have been searching for an opportunity to kill Zabuza."

Kakashi human looked at the new masked human. "That mask…you are a hunter-nin of Kirigakure."

"You are correct. My duty is to hunt down and kill those ninja that defect from my village."

I looked at Naruto. He was disturbed. After all, the hunter-nin could not have been much older than him. Yet the hunter-nin had taken down an opponent that Naruto could not yet even dream of defeating.

So what he did next surprised me. "Thank you for helping us to take down Zabuza. But next time, I will defeat all the enemies! Believe it!"

I believe that seeing a hunter-nin not much older than him had inspired him. That was good for him.

I had once told him to thank those that help him out, but I did not think that he had actually listened. I was impressed.

The hunter-nin nodded. And then he disappeared and reappeared next to Zabuza human's body. "Farewell. I must dispose of this body." With that, the hunter-nin disappeared, along with the body of our former enemy.

The battle was now over. What a tense mission.

Now we just had to head to the bridge builder's home. But then the Kakashi human fell over and onto the ground. What had happened?

He had exhausted himself, apparently from using the Sharingan.

I turned to the team. "So, who is going to carry him? We still have some miles to go."

All the humans looked at each other. Then an argument ensued.

"You do it!" Naruto did not want to carry him.

"I refuse." Sasuke human did not want to.

"No way!" Sakura human did not want to either.

"I'm the client." The bridge builder did not want to.

"And I am a bird." And I certainly did not want to.

And now Kakashi human had on strange expression. "Somebody just do it."

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><p>In the end, it was I who relented. All the other humans out-argued me. And I was a bird! Why me? Unfortunately, Naruto knew that I could change my size. He pointed that out. Too smart of a human.<p>

So I had to enlarge myself enough so that I could carry the Kakashi human. I was now at a larger size than I had been in years. It was actually a little nice to be at this size. It was nowhere near my true size, but it was still larger than the other sizes I had used in the past years.

And so the Kakashi human would receive a ride to the bridge builder's house. Then Naruto wanted a ride also!

"No." I would not give him one.

"Why not? It seems fun. You're giving Kakashi-sensei one!" The whole reason he wanted a ride was because it seemed fun?

"Well, he is not in a condition to walk. You, on the other hand, can."

"Fine…" He looked dejected. Now I felt bad.

"…Maybe later." What a stupid human. Maybe that was why I was so fond of him.

* * *

><p>After we reached the bridge builder's house, we met his daughter and his grandson. Tsunami human and Inari human, respectively.<p>

I dropped the Kakashi human on one of those mats that are actually beds of some sort.

And after a while passed, Naruto came up with something to do.

"Hey Sakura, Sasuke, Akarui! Let's see what's under Kakashi-sensei's mask!"

Well, I actually was a little curious. I had never seen what was under the human's mask. And so were the other two. Even if the Sasuke human tried to pretend otherwise.

And so Sakura and Naruto went up to the Kakashi human, who was sleeping. I decided to help.

I had decided that after this mission was the time that I should tell wrinkly human about my human form. I wanted to surprise him. Phoenixes were known to have a human form, though, so the wrinkly human might actually expected it. Perhaps the wrinkly human could help me out with the form. I was not confident that I could fight in my human form. I still felt too unsteady.

And so I told Naruto and Sakura to wait. After I had told them that, I entered another room. It was there that I assumed my human form. The rest of Naruto's team would be surprised.

And so I reentered the room. Sakura human was definitely surprised. She was sputtering. "Who are you?"

Sasuke human was surprised to. He did not show it as openly, but I had seen his eyes widen and then narrow again.

Naruto just jumped and yelled. "Akarui!"

"Naruto, do not wake up the Kakashi human. Otherwise, we will not be able to see what is under his mask."

"Oh, sorry! Oh, and Sakura and Sasuke, this is Akarui! This is his human form."

Sakura just looked at me. For some reason, she looked just a little more red than usual. Humans were strange. Sasuke just replied with his customary "hn."

"Now, shall we see what is under the Kakashi human's mask?" I wanted to know.

And so Naruto, Sakura, and I crept closer to Kakashi human's mask.

Just as we got fairly close, the targe-I mean Kakashi human shot up from the bed. We were so close!

And then he spoke. "Something's not right." And then his gaze fell on me. "And who are you?"

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><p>Author's note: So sorry for the bad battle scenes. I am not good at those…if someone could help, it would be nice.<p>

Sorry for the little-bit-longer than usual wait. I got sort of sick from the cursed allergens in the air. And by the way, if you have read _The Wrath of Kyuubi_ and do not know yet, it will be continued.

So thanks to my reviewers! Of course. And to all who read this, please, if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, review.


	22. Chapter 21: All That Trouble for Naught

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 21: All of That Trouble for Naught<p>

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><p>The Kakashi human looked suspiciously at me. I also noticed that the bridge builder and his daughter had come.<p>

Well, I would just have to tell him, and all of them, then.

"I am Akarui, of course." Whether the human believed me or not was another story.

The human just looked at me. Then, "Prove it." I turned my head to look at the speaker. The Sasuke human was the one who had spoken. He had kept quiet before, but now it seemed he really wanted to know.

"Fine, if you want me to." In a flurry of feathers, I shifted back and came to land on Naruto's shoulder. "See, it is me."

The Kakashi human just looked at me, but Sasuke human seemed satisfied. "What are you?" The Kakashi human wanted to know, it seemed.

"Me? I am a nin-bird." Technically, that was the truth. Not the whole, complete truth, but the truth nonetheless.

He just continued to look at me. I think he was trying to figure out what I was. It would not be surprising if he had already figured it out.

Then after a bit, he switched his gaze to the others. I believed that he had something else to talk about. "Something's not right here. Usually, hunter-nins dispose of the body of the person they killed right then and there."

Right then and there? That means…Zabuza human's body had not been disposed of correctly. Perhaps the hunter was not really a hunter?

"What! But Zabuza's body was not disposed of that way!" At least Naruto noticed. That was good. He was getting better.

"The masked boy took the body. If he needed proof of his work, he could have just taken the head. And the weapons he used…"

What about the weapons? They were needles, right?

Sasuke human noticed it first. "No way."

Someone explained to the confused bird here. I would be grateful. I had no idea what was happening.

"Yeah, exactly…" Kakashi human, you are not explaining.

The bridge builder spoke up. "What are you guys talking about?" Yes, explain.

"Most likely, Zabuza is still alive!" The looks on Naruto's, Sakura's, and the bridge builder's were hilarious. I was shocked also, but it was hard to show any emotions on my face.

So Zabuza human was still alive? The hunter-nin had been on his side then. All of that trouble, and for naught. _Great._

Screaming ensued. Naruto and Sakura were quite angry. They wanted an explanation…after all, Kakashi had told them that Zabuza human had been dead.

I wanted an explanation also. I had fairly limited knowledge about human anatomy…but I was sure that humans could not come back from the dead like I could.

Kakashi human explained. Apparently, the needle could temporarily "kill" someone. That was interesting. And he said that we needed to prepare. Speaking about preparing…

"Kakashi human, I need to speak to you about something." This was perfect. He could not exactly move. I landed on the ground in front of him and shifted into my human form.

"Remember what I said when I first met you? Well, you are not living up to the expectation. So that means…" I lit the tips of my fingers on fire. His hair would make a nice bonfire, all shiny and bright.

He looked a little panicked. "Maa, maa, there's no need to rush, I was just going to do that anyway."

"Really? Good." I made the flames on my fingertips disappear.

"But sensei, how will we prepare? You can barely move." Sakura human looked a little concerned.

"Don't worry about it. We're going to train." I wondered what we would do.

"Sensei! What's a little training going to do? Our enemy is a ninja you struggled against even with the Sharingan!" She had a point with the Kakashi human struggling part, but better to train and get better through time than do nothing. All ninjas improved by training, not sitting down and watching others fight.

"You guys are growing rapidly. Especially Naruto. But, obviously, this training is just until I get better. You won't be able to defeat him without me." Naruto looked extremely pleased with the compliment. Well, it was not that Naruto was really the worst, he just was horrible at the written part and certain Ninjutsu parts.

But what about Zabuza human? He could attack or something. I did not have to ask though. Sakura did for me. After that, Kakashi human explained that it took time for a body to recover from the temporary death state. We had time.

Then we got interrupted by a small human child. Apparently, he was named Inari. He went over to hug his grandpa and then turned to his mom. "Mom, they're all going to die."

What a pessimistic child. But then again, maybe he had reason to be.

At this Naruto exploded. "What are you talking about?" He was so loud. Sakura was yelling at him to stop yelling. It was ironic, actually.

"Naruto, you are yelling at a child. You do not have to yell." I hoped that he would quiet down.

He did so, but continued to talk. "Listen, I am a superhero who will one day become an incredible ninja called a Hokage! I do not know this Gato, but he is nothing against me!"

Naruto, a superhero? He was pushing it. Ninjas are not quite superheroes. I do not think that Naruto has realized that yet.

"What are you, stupid? There's no such thing as heroes. If you don't want to die, you should leave." With that, Inari human left.

No such things as heroes? Well, some humans also believed there were no such things as dragons and phoenixes. They were wrong, obviously. Phoenixes and dragons are harder to believe in then heroes, but here I am still.

The bridge builder apologized for his grandson. Naruto marched upstairs to confront the Inari child. Nothing came of it. I could hear the child crying, and so could Naruto.

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><p>The next day, we went outside. We were going to train. But before that, Kakashi human asked the group of they knew what chakra was.<p>

Before Naruto could say anything, I pecked him and reminded him of what it was. How he could forget, I did not understand. Ninjas seemed to need chakra. I did not know of any ninja who could not use chakra, but there could be some.

Sasuke and Naruto both thought that since they could use jutsu, they were fine already. Well, Naruto _had_ already worked on some chakra control exercises.

I stopped listening after a while. I was considering catching the squirrel that I could see underneath the bush.

That was, until Kakashi said, "Tree-climbing," really loudly and scared it away. My lunch…

Tree-climbing? The chakra control exercise? Naruto already knew that.

"What? But Kakashi-sensei…I already know that!"

"Hmm? You do? This is not normal tree-climbing, you have to climb with no hands!" He demonstrated, climbing up the tree without his hands. Sasuke human and Sakura human looked impressed.

"Yeah, that's what I meant! Akarui helped me out with it!" Naruto always spoke in exclamation marks…

"Really? Show me." Kakashi human wanted some proof. Well, Naruto could do it. And Naruto did. He had learned this several years ago. "You said Akarui-san helped you?" He turned to me with his lazy expression. "How did you know about it?"

I looked at him. "I bought a scroll while trying to learn about it and there was the exercise inside. Anyway, since Naruto already knows this, can I take him somewhere else and work on his speed? Strictly speaking….it's…not good." It was really bad, but that was impolite to say.

"Well, since Naruto already knows the exercise, I guess it would not be a problem."

I told Naruto to follow me and we went a little deeper into the woods. Unfortunately, we got interrupted. "Look! A frog!" Naruto jumped up to it…and began imitating it. Right down to the puffed up cheeks*. He made a frog noise also.

I just stared at him. He was very immature, but he _was_ still a child. "Naruto, could we please go?" He finally stood up and began to follow me again. That is, after an "aww" sound. We then made it to a clearing.

"Naruto, since we need to work on your speed…we could combine the exercise with dodging practice."

"What are we going to do?" Oh, Naruto was going to enjoy this…or not.

"Easy, you dodge the flames!" With that I started to throw flames at him.

He ran like he was running for his life. Which, he was. After all, I had not told him that I could extinguish the flames in midair if need be. He did not need to know. And so practice continued.

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><p>When we finally got backed to the house, Naruto looked quite worn out. Which he was. But I was pleased, he had managed to dodge all the flames, even if they were slow ones. We could get onto faster ones later.<p>

I noticed that Sasuke human was also looking worse for the wear. He must have been trying hard also.

And so dinner began. I even got a miniature bowl to eat from. How nice of them. I had to get one of these when we got back to Konoha.

Then, for some reason, Sasuke and Naruto began an eating competition. After several bowls…they promptly threw it all up. They said that to get stronger, they had to eat.

Still, they did not have to throw up…and this place seemed poor enough already.

That was when Sakura questioned about a picture on the wall. Part of it had been torn off. The bridge builder and his daughter explained. The man had been a hero…and the man Inari child considered his father. They had lost him to Gato…and with him, the town had lost all hope and courage. How very sad.

Of course, this made Naruto all the more determined to prove to Inari that heroes do exist.

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><p>And so we trained some more. After the fifth day of my training, Naruto had fallen asleep. I was happy with him. He had much greatly improved. But it seemed like he was really tired. And so I let him sleep. It was not that bad outside, anyway. Being outside is better than being inside, anyway.<p>

But what was with the sparrows? They were not scared of bigger things at all. They kept jumping onto Naruto. They were a little annoying, but I chirped with them anyway. Not that anything they said actually made any sense. The normal animals in this world were not sentient, so all they ever said related to food and the like. They like Naruto because of the bright colors he had on. The same with me. They were actually sort of cute.

I was dozing off in my sparrow size when I saw a girl in pink come by. Who was she? She started to come over. I chirped into Naruto's ear to wake him up.

He woke up right before the girl came over. "Huh? Who are you?"

The girl never gave a name, but Naruto went right on talking and then offered to help her pick herbs. And so the two of them began to do so. I just watched them and continued to chirp nonsense with the sparrows.

The two of them held their own conversations. It was about dreams and the people they cared for the most. Apparently, when a human had something to protect, they became stronger. Was it true? I was not sure. One would also become stronger if they were fighting for their own life also…not just for the life of their friends…right?

And then the person said something that surprised me. She…was a _boy_. I really needed to work on how to differentiate between a male and a female…

And a day after that…Kakashi human was back to normal. And, probably, so was the Zabuza human. We would engage in battle soon. And I hoped that we were ready.

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><p>Author's note:<p>

* I actually got this from volume three's inside cover page, which depicts Naruto imitating a frog.

So sorry for the longer then normal wait. Been busy…since it is this time of the year.

People have been telling me to make the length longer. I will try, but there is a reason I cannot. I have a very one-track mind when it comes to writing. When I start I cannot stop until I finish. If I stop, I lose track and then I have a hard time motivating myself to start again. So when I start, I have to finish…but I need more time to make longer chapters, time I simply do not have. So I am very sorry if the length seems insufficient. I have tried to make up for it with fast updates (even if this one was slow).

Thanks for reading and thanks to my reviewers!


	23. Chapter 22: The Reason to Live

Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any monetary gain from this work.<p>

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><p>Chapter 22: The Reason to Live<p>

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><p>When we had dinner again, Inari human and Naruto got into another argument. Inari human thought we were no match for Gato. And at that, Naruto was angered. Or was it at what Inari said later? I let Naruto argue it out. He had to learn sometime. And I would not fight his battles.<p>

Later, I overheard Kakashi human talk to Inari human about Naruto. Perhaps he cared more than I thought. I would have to keep that in mind.

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><p>The next morning…Naruto would not wake up. At all. Even when I repeatedly yelled "Ramen!" into his ear. That garnered some strange looks from everyone else.<p>

"What? It used to always work." At my answer, everyone then seemed to understand.

"He's pushed his body to the limit. I don't think he'll be able to move today," Kakashi human said.

"Oh, then I will stay here." Naruto was easily the most interesting human around anyway. Tsunami human and her son Inari human would watch him also, while everyone else was gone. And with that, Kakashi human, Sakura human, and Sasuke human left with the bridge builder.

Despite what Kakashi human said about Naruto and his body, I did not doubt that he would be up very soon. But in the meantime, I decided to wait in the forest. The house was…really not to my taste.

After I spent some time in there, I noticed that the sparrows were getting increasingly uncomfortable. When I listed more closely to the chirps, it turned out they were signaling each other about a potential danger.

In the forest? That meant the danger was probably heading towards the bridge builder's house. Then I heard an, "I'm off!" Naruto, he was heading into the forest. I was about to catch up to him and tell him about the danger, but when I listed for his movements, I realized he had already turned back.

He knew about it also then. With that, I also turned to fly back to the house.

I was farther away than Naruto, so by the time I reached the house, he was already there. He had also already handled the two humans who had come. I stayed in the forest to listen. The other two human were samurai. They were obviously hostile. But now they were safely tied up.

And as for Inari, well, I would like to think he found courage and hope. Naruto has quite a…unique way with other humans. And perhaps with non-humans also.

When Naruto jumped into the forest, I met up with him there. "Akarui, where were you? I thought you left with the others!"

"No Naruto, I decided to stay in the forest until you woke up. With which you took your time, I saw." He really did. He took forever. The rest of his team were already at the bridge, most probably.

He made an awkward sound, a laugh maybe? "Sorry! But soon I'll arrive in time to save everyone! Believe it!"

"Right. If you say so." I gave up arguing a long time ago. Sometimes he just refused to see sense.

"Hey, Akarui, can you give me a ride now? You promised!" He turned to me with a hopeful look.

"….Fine. I did promise."

Troublesome human. I enlarged myself in order to support him. It was only a short trip to the bridge anyway.

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><p>When we got to the bridge…it was covered in mist. Certainly a bad sign. Most likely, the enemy ninja were here.<p>

It seemed, from what I could tell, that Sasuke human was engaging in battle with the fake hunter-nin. Kakashi human was in battle with the Zabuza human.

"Naruto, I will fly across the field before I land. Therefore, you can see what is happening before you help out you team." I flew across the field. Kakashi human and Zabuza human were engaged in a battle. Naruto would not do well if he were to engage Zabuza human. He should help out Sasuke human.

I believe that Naruto believed that as well. When I flew across the field for the second time, he jumped off to help Sasuke human. Who seemed to be trapped in a barrier of…perhaps ice? That was what it seemed like to me, anyway. Of course, he jumped in with a loud proclamation, saying he was a hero. He would do that.

Zabuza human instantly tossed a few shuriken at him, only for them to be blocked by the hunter-nin. In the conversation after, the hunter, whose name apparently was Haku, said that he wanted to handle the "kids."

At this point, I was still watching from the air, circling around. With luck, Naruto would _not _enter the dome to help his friend. Perhaps with two people on either side of the mirror, they had more chance of breaking it. But of course, no such luck. Naruto jumped in. Sasuke human yelled at him. Understandable. I wanted to also. "You moron! Use your head! Why'd you come in the mirrors?" He yelled some more after that. I agreed. Naruto is a moron. I sighed.

"Don't worry! Akarui is still outside." Oh. That explained it more. But if I was not outside, would he still have gone in? I did not want to know the answer to that one. Any more conversation was immediately lost as Haku human entered his mirror.

"Akarui, you were supposed to stop that from happening!" Naruto yelled.

I was? Oh, it seemed like I had gotten distracted by my thinking. It was my mistake. In an attempt to make it seem like it was not my fault (which it was), I told him it was _his _battle. I did have my pride, after all.

Then, through the spaces between the ice, I could see Sasuke human try a fireball jutsu of some sort. It failed. So fire would not work after all. What was I supposed to do then? Ram into them? That would be a bad idea. I could imagine myself doing it…and the headache afterwards.

So for now, I would watch. I was not exactly limited to fire and my fire would probably work. But I would only help Naruto if he needed it. This was a battle, and he should be able to hold his own. Naruto, from what I saw, tried to use Kage Bunshin to break the mirrors. In a feat of almost impossible speed, they were all destroyed. Impressive. Perhaps I would be needed after all?

Kakashi told us that Haku human had a kekkei genkai. Which was a special jutsu passed down from your ancestors. Humans were getting more and more interesting. At that, Haku started speaking about dreams. His dream was to protect the most important human to him. And he would kill for it. I definitely did not want Naruto to be killed. And what Kakashi said after was true. They would not be able to kill the enemy human.

"Naruto, watch for the flames." Shall I see if the ice could withstand a phoenix's fire?

I flew at the dome, circling it once before I spat my flames at it. I was still at the size I had used to carry Naruto. The ice…really had no chance. It melted. Haku was shocked. "The bird!" I flew back up into the sky, there was no need to be a target. As for the rest of the battle, well, I would stay out of it. It was the genins' job now.

And both genin exploded into action at the opportunity.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

Haku quickly recovered and retaliated, dodging the fireball and tossing a few well-aimed senbon at the clones. The clones disappeared, but the original was fine. Both him and Sasuke began to try and engage in a Taijutsu battle. Haku could hold his own. But, Sasuke's speed had certainly improved, as well as Naruto's. Together, they had managed to land some hits on the other ninja.

That was, until Haku began to use his strange ice-based attacks again. Knowing I, who was capable of melting his ice, was still there, he attacked fast. The ice…mirrors, as he called them, quickly formed again. This time, there was no hesitation. He continued to throw senbon after senbon. This all happened faster than I could interfere.

I was not sure what happened next. The next thing I knew, Sasuke had taken the senbon meant for Naruto. Had he…died? I did not even have time to think about that. I could see the face of the Kyuubi in between the mirrors. And I could feel his presence. What was happening? I was panicked. I thought Naruto was supposed to seal Kyuubi away? Did this mean that the seal was no longer intact?

And then I could see the Haku human flying through one of his mirrors. With Naruto on the other side. That was Naruto? He did not look right. His expression did not fit his face. The whisker marks were deeper and darker. And the killing intent he leaked…was not his.

As he was about to deliver a punch to Haku human's face, he suddenly stopped. I could see why. The boy had been the same one we had met in the forest. When the Haku human asked why he stopped, even thought he had killed Sasuke, then he got punched. But the Kyuubi's presence was gone now.

They began to speak after that. Haku human had a special ability, but it was not loved. He was alone also, after the deaths of his parents…all at each other's hands. Until Zabuza human took him in. And that was why he fought for the Zabuza human.

And then he asked Naruto to kill him. He was useless now, after all.

Naruto was shocked. As was I. Why would you want to die? It did not make sense to me. Perhaps it was because I was not human...But humans had all the more reason to not want to die. They would never come back. Even though I would come back, I still would never wish to die.

Naruto hesitated. He did not understand Haku human's reason for living or loss of it, rather. The other said when the met in the forest, he knew they were similar. So Naruto should understand. And Naruto did. He pulled out a kunai. Would he really kill the other human? It was to be expected. Naruto was no longer a normal human…he was a ninja. And as Haku had said, ninjas were nothing but tools.

But was not Naruto's act a defiance of that rule? He was doing as another ninja, another _tool_, asked. That alone was not the act of a tool. So what were ninja, exactly?

Perhaps they were both human and tools.

And so Naruto began the killing act. But before it was dealt, Haku human stopped him. He, it seemed, was not quite done. But he still died seconds later. I saw when the mist cleared that he had taken the killing blow for the human most precious to him.

But the one he took the blow for did not seem to care. Kakashi human vanished, to reappear a little back from his original position, along with the body of the human once known as Haku.

Naruto was shaking in anger. Understandable. Haku human had given up his life, _his life,_ but is seemed that the one he had given it for did not care. How very…sad.

Kakashi closed Haku's eyes. And stood to continue the fight. Of course. For he was a ninja also.

The two ninja clashed again. At the end of the clash, both of Zabuza human's arms were useless.

And then from behind, the group I was concerned about for a while arrived. Gato human and his men were here. I had seen them a way off, but I had hoped that they would not arrive this soon. He spoke, "Zabuza, I'm going to have you killed right here. I never planned on paying you any money."

What a despicable human.

Zabuza human told Kakashi human he would stop fighting. There was no longer any point. And then Gato human came up to Haku human's body and…kicked it. He had no respect for the dead.

Naruto was enraged. He would have attacked, but Kakashi human stopped him. And so he turned onto Zabuza. "Weren't you friends! Don't you feel anything at all? "

"In the world of shinobi, there are the ones who are used and the ones who used them. That is all. We shinobi are simply tools. What I wanted was his blood, not him. I have no regrets."

At that, Naruto broke free from Kakashi's hold. "He loved you that much! If I become as strong as you…will I really become like you? He threw away his own life for you. Without his own dream to die as a tool." He was crying now. I was sad also. Humans…I was very unsure about them.

Then, "You don't have to say anymore." Zabuza human too, was crying. Naruto had gotten to him, it seemed. "It pained him to fight you. He was too kind. I'm glad I got to face you guys in the end. Yeah kid, you may be right. A shinobi is still a human, we may not be able to become emotionless tools. I've lost. Kid, let me borrow your kunai."

It was a request that Naruto complied with. Zabuza caught in his mouth, having bitten through the bandages covering his mouth beforehand. He ran through the mob of enemies, and sliced down the Gato human. But he had taken many weapons from the crowd of enemies.

It was soon to be the end of a proud ninja.

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><p>Author's note: I would have ended it on a later note…but it was going on too long. Sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoyed. Reviews are always welcomed, and thanks to all who reviewed.<p>

Edit: I seem to have developed the bad habit of making too much paragraphs when there should just be one. I changed this chapter because of that.


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